Yahoo Autos Mysterious thrashing in Florida swamp was alligator eating an alligator, woman learns
A woman intent on photographing one of Florida’s “golden” sunsets got more than she bargained for when she found a nearby alligator engaging in cannibalism.
It happened March 6 at Orlando Wetlands Park, and wildlife photographer Barbara D’Angelo says the gator’s timing was comically perfect.
She was facing west at dusk, camera at the ready, when there came “a huge splash” 10 feet behind her.
“Turning around I saw an alligator with something dark in his mouth,” D’Angelo told McClatchy News.
“I’ve got pictures of alligators eating ducks, so that was my first thought. Being a wildlife photographer for seven years brought the camera to my eye. I just started shooting.”
She realized the 8-foot alligator was chewing on a smaller alligator.
More than just chewing, it was also whipping and slamming its prey against the water.
Each time, bones cracked in the smaller alligator.
“He was snapping his prey’s neck with the first slam. The others were to crush bones and pulverize it. All like snap, snap, crack!” D’Angelo said.
“That gator never took his eyes off me. ... I stood there like a tree hoping he didn’t think I was a threat. When he was done crushing his victim, it was folded in thirds. That gator knew what he was doing. ... He folded his victim like a lawn chair.”
It took the “bull alligator” just two minutes to reduce the 3-foot-long juvenile gator into something that could be easily chewed, she said.
