A massive alligator has become an Internet sensation after a video showing the creature out on a stroll through a Florida nature preserve went viral, with CBS News reporting that the footage had already been shared on social media more than 25,000 times as of Monday afternoon.
The video, which was recorded by Kim Joiner during her visit to the Circle B Bar Reserve at the Polk Nature Discovery Center in Lakeland, Florida, shows the gator as it emerges out of a group of trees, walks across a trail in front of onlookers, then disappears behind a second group of plants.
Joiner wasn’t the only person looking on, according to reports: park attendee Kristi Buckley was also on hand, snapping pictures mere feet from the massive gator. As she admitted to WTSP, she “probably should’ve been a little more afraid than I was.” Instead, she said that she was “inspired by seeing this amazing creature come across the path who’d obviously been there for decades.”
In fact, the gator has been there for decades, and has even been nicknamed “Mr. Humpback” by regular visitors to the reserve, although Buckley told CBS that she and her husband have taken to calling it “Godzilla” – a name which seems more appropriate, as nature experts told WTSP that it may be as much as 15 feet long and weigh a whopping 800 pounds.
Experts caution, keep your distance from the enormous reptile
Naturally, such incredible footage will cause some to be skeptical of its authenticity, but Buckley assured News 13 that the photos and videos were “definitely not fake.” She added that the whole this was “an amazing experience” and an indication of why it’s “important that places like Circle B exist so these animals can live and hunt their fish and birds and other things that they eat.”
Jeff Spence, director of environmental lands for Polk County, confirmed to local media outlets that the creature in the video is indeed “Mr. Humpback,” and that the massive alligator has lived at the reserve for at least a decade. He added that he did not know just how much it weighed.
The viral video, which was shot on Sunday, has resulted in a significant increase in the number of visitors to the Polk Nature Discovery Center, including Bridgett Pitts, who told News 13 that she was looking for the gator and that she “[hoped] to see it today.” However, Spence said that visitors to the park should be careful: while there have no reports of gator attacks at the reserve, people should nonetheless exercise caution and refrain from approaching these wild creatures.
The “Mr. Humpback” sighting comes less than a year after a massive gator was spotted on the 18th hole of a Cypress Lakes, Florida golf course in April 2016. Photos of that gator walking on the cart path en route to a nearby pond were taken by a 10-year-old boy, and like the more recent pictures and video, went viral as folks raced to look at the rather large reptile.
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Image credit: KAB photography
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