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Gator eats gator: Paddleboarder records alligator's cannibalistic behavior
Video recorded by a paddleboarder in Florida shows a massive alligator having another gator as a snack. Tammy Shaw said she was paddling on Silver Springs in Marion County earlier this month when she spotted an approximately 11-foot alligator that was about the length of her paddleboard. Shaw said the gator was not shy about a recent kill.
LAKE MARY, Fla. - Video recorded by a paddleboarder in Florida shows a massive alligator having another gator as a snack.
Tammy Shaw said she was paddling on Silver Springs in Marion County earlier this month when she spotted an approximately 11-foot alligator that was about the length of her paddleboard. Shaw said the gator was not shy about a recent kill. In its mouth was a smaller alligator about half its size.
"It seemed like he was just kind of showing it off," she told FOX 35 News. "I took another video where he kinda took it out of the water and he kind of like smiled at me. I know they don't smile, but that's what it looked like – it was like looking right at me with it in his mouth, just very proud."
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Shaw said she had seen alligators in that particular area of the springs before but had never witnessed this kind of cannibalistic behavior.
According to Florida Fish and Wildlife, alligators are opportunistic feeders. Juvenile alligators eat primarily insects, amphibians, small fish, and other invertebrates while adult alligators eat rough fish, snakes, turtles, small mammals, and birds. On occasion, an alligator will eat another alligator.