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This is the terrifying moment a gigantic cannibal alligator eats one of its own.
Footage filmed by Alex Figueroa shows a gator estimated to be 11 to 12 feet long munching on a much smaller alligator before carrying its meal to another location.
Local news station ABC Action News reports it’s common for alligators to become cannibalistic during their mating season, which runs from March until mid-June.
Gary Morse, an officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, told FOX 13 News,
What alligators will typically do is they’ll take that animal and stuff it some place for a week or two until it gets nice and soft and they can tear it apart.
Visitors reportedly saw multiple instances of alligators attacking each other at the 1,267-acre Florida reserve over the past few days.
Those reports, however, may have involved the same gators fighting at different locations.
According to the FWC website, gator attacks are very rare. Florida averages five unprovoked bites a year and the last death was 2007 in Oldsmar.
To keep visitors safe Polk County has closed the trail near where the gator fights have occurred. They said the trail will be re-opened when mating season ends.
Alligators are, of course, not the only animals that occasionally eat their young. This behavior has also been observed in lions, chimpanzees, pigs, dogs, cats, spiders, many types of frogs and salamanders, bears, fish and some types of birds, just to name a few.
Agencies/Canadajournal
