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A rare alligator attack occurred in the Everglades National Park over the weekend when a man in Florida was airlifted to a nearby hospital to be treated for wounds from an alligator bite.
According to a report from Miam’s WSVN News, the incident occurred around 4:45 PM on Sunday afternoon. Or that’s when emergency responders from the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue arrived at the gates of teh Everglades National Park after a report of a man being attacked by an alligator.
According to the WSVN report, the wound was so bad the man had to be airlifted to the nearby Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson South Medical Center in Miami-Date county. A radio transmission at the time referenced “an adult male bit by an alligator” and according to reports, the man was still hospitalized as of Monday morning.
It’s unclear if the man who was bitten by the alligator is a Florida resident or an out-of-state tourist, nor is it immediately clear if that would impact bite statistics here in Florida. The initial report showed an image of the man being taken into the hospital after being airlifted but the Everglades National Park has not released a statement yet.
The odds of an alligator attack occurring are incredible rare, about 1-in-3.2 million. Of those, only 4% of attacks are fatal. So, the chances of surviving an alligator attack are high but obviously not an experience anyone wants to go through. As for the rarity of these attacks, there have been 451 here in Florida since 1948 according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Of those, 30 have been fatal.
Frankly, it’s a testament to how docile alligators are and how intelligent the species is that there aren’t more attacks in Florida. There are an estimated 1.3 million alligators here in Florida. They’re everywhere. The old adage goes that if there’s a body of water in Florida then there’s an alligator in it (freshwater, of course).
In fact, I can literally see one out my window as I type this article which, if we’re being honest, is quite rare because the lake behind my house doesn’t often have gators in it. I haven’t seen one in there in 2+ years so that’s why I’m sort of ranting right now. It’ll be interesting to see if this one sticks around, it appears to be about 4ft long.