A man has sustained “significant injuries” after being attacked by an alligator in Florida.
The unnamed 23-year-old victim was bitten close to a pond in Charlotte County on Sunday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) confirmed in a statement. The pond was located behind a local establishment, the Banditos Bar, in Port Charlotte, the FWC said.
Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office and the Charlotte County EMS “all responded to the scene,” the FWC said.
“The victim was taken to the hospital by helicopter for significant injuries,” the statement added.
A contracted nuisance alligator trapper was sent to the scene, the commission said, adding it was now investigating the incident.
Alligators have lived in the marshes, rivers, swamps, and lakes in the state “for many centuries, and are found in all 67 counties,” the FWC has previously said in a factsheet posted online. Although home to an estimated 1.3 million alligators, “serious injuries caused by alligators are rare in Florida,” the commission added.
Earlier this month, a 10-foot alligator was found in the backyard pool of a home in Kendall, Florida.
“Alligators in swimming pools, especially without screens, isn’t uncommon,” Todd Hardwick of Pesty Critters pest control service, which was called to the scene, previously told Newsweek.
“This particular alligator was living in a body of water in the neighborhood and they of course don’t know the difference between a pool and a pond,” he added.
Also this month, a robotic camera operated by Florida officials in the city of Oviedo discovered an alligator lurking in a network of underground pipes.
Inspection crews “came across a five-foot alligator,” the city’s administration said, posting footage of the alligator as the robot approached the reptile.
“At first, they thought it was a toad and in the video, you see two little glowing eyes until you get closer – but when it turned around, they saw the long tail of the alligator and followed it through the pipes!” Oviedo officials said in the video description. “They got about 340 feet in before the robot got stuck on a little indentation and the alligator meandered off,” the statement added.
American alligators will have a “broad, rounded snout” which does not display lower teeth when the reptile’s jaw is closed, according to the FWC. Younger alligators will have “light-colored stripes on their side for camouflage,” whereas adults will be dark grey with a lighter underside, the commission said.
Male American alligators can grow to be much larger than female alligators, the commission continued, adding that female alligators are unlikely to grow longer than 10 feet in length.
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