An enormous 10-foot alligator brought traffic to a standstill for more than an hour until animal control experts were able to remove it and bring it to safety.
Traffic was gridlocked for over an hour after a massive 10-foot gator made it's way onto the northbound lanes of the 18 Mile Stretch near mile marker 126 in Key Largo.
At around 6:40 p.m., Pesky Critters Wildlife Control arrived at the scene and after tussling with the reptile for over an hour, the trappers were able to capture and remove the gator to safety.
Bodycam footage, provided by Pesky Critters, shows the moment the two trappers faced-off against the enormous alligator as it snarled and lunged at them.
The incident comes just days after a man lost his arm to a similar-sized alligator in Port Charlotte.
“Alligators are native to Florida so anywhere that you have freshwater, you have a high likelihood of encountering an alligator so whether that’s a lake, a canal, a pond, a river,” says George Reynaud, an officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. “And the most important thing is to learn how to coexist with an alligator. So just because I see an alligator doesn’t mean that it poses a threat, or it has to be removed.”
Much of the agency's job is to get that message out, but they say that sometimes, an alligator can pose a risk if it has lost its natural fear of humans because it was fed illegally.
“In that case, the best thing to do is call FWC, Florida Fish and Wildlife, or we have a program called SNAP which stands for Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program, and that program is designed and dedicated to removing alligators that have become a nuisance or have lost that fear of a person and they get removed permanently from that area,” Reynaud said.
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In those cases, you can call 866-392-4286 and they will send a team to remove the nuisance alligator permanently.
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The FWC says that most bites can be prevented by staying away from places where alligators may be living.
“If you are walking your pet make sure it’s on a leash and that you don’t bring it near the shoreline or let your pet swim in the water because they do resemble the natural prey of an alligator and that’s going to attract the alligator to the pet,” Reynaud said.
