Florida alligator head-butts officer attempting to capture him
An 8-foot alligator delivered quite a blow to a Florida Fish and Wildlife trapper trying to remove it from a neighborhood in the Sunshine State.
The trapper was part of a crew loading the animal onto the back of a pickup truck after capturing it in Ocoee, Florida, when the gator made one last-ditch effort to free itself. Resident Walter Day witnessed the incident and told CBS affiliate WKMG-TV of Orlando, Florida, “The gator flipped back and head-butted the guy. (It) knocked him to the ground.”
Other workers attempted to restrain the animal in the truck, but the gator had other plans.
“At that point, it was (kind of) free and whacked police officers with its tail,” Day said. The gator hit another trapper in the head before falling off the back of the truck. The animal was already tied up, so it was not able to get far. Crews finally succeeded in removing it from the area.
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Neighbors had reported the reptile walking around their community and alerted authorities to remove it earlier in the day. When officers arrived, Day said, the gator was on the doorstep of a neighbor’s home and she almost opened her front door to a rude surprise.
“We were like, ‘No, go back in!’ So she closed the door,” Day told WKMG-TV.
By the time the trappers got to work there were dozens of people watching and taking videos on their phones. A video of the capture taken by a boy went viral online.
As to why the gator was prowling around a neighborhood far from the water, experts told WKMG-TV there are two likely reasons: he was looking for a mate or hunting for food. It seems that the gator went home empty-handed on both counts.
