Posted on 05/07/2025 11:15:18 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
A kayaker was attacked and killed by an alligator Tuesday afternoon at Lake Kissimmee State Park in Central Florida, according to authorities.
Authorities were alerted to the incident just before 4 p.m. when a witness reported an encounter with the reptile.
Video from the scene showed law enforcement officers using both boats and helicopters to respond to the scene and potentially search for the animal.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission released a statement that read, “Preliminary information indicates that a woman was canoeing when she encountered an alligator and went into the water. The woman was later recovered from the water and was declared deceased.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
You’re just not the top of the food chain in rural Florida.
Bond stunt man had to do multiple takes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LrbTd69iwI
That happens a lot. Once food is in the water, gator gonna gator.
The current report says the woman and her husband were in a canoe and coming to shore. In shallow water they went over the back of the alligator and it raised up from the bottom and capsized the canoe. The woman landed on the back of the alligator and it bit her. I live on a lake in central Florida and have large alligators cruising by every day in the summer. They are usually submerged with only their eye and nose above water. I can see them right away, but this couple probably did not recognize it and paddled right over it.
This incident occurred while I was in high school. The lake had a fence surrounding it, but the gator forced it’s way in. A fresh/brackish creek, south creek was the reason for the fence, as it had a healthy gator population and the lake was for swimming. Even had a float in the center that was about 20x20 with ladders for sunbathing on. As a teenager I must have been in this lake 100+ times.
Sharon Holmes, 16, female, was killed by an 11’3’ male alligator while swimming at dusk in a lake at Oscar Scherer State Park, Sarasota County, on Aug. 16, 1973. The alligator was killed, and body parts from the victim were found in its stomach. The alligator had recently moved into the lake and was reportedly to have been fed by visitors to the park.
America’s benis is pretty much Australia: everything will kill you.
Don’t kid yourself. They’re there! I was almost a meal!
See my post about CR on an earlier thread.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4315497/posts?page=40#40
I doubt a Gator would purposely try and tip over a canoe or kayak, I believe in this case, the person paddled over the Alligator and surprised it, when the Gator made a sudden movement, it tipped the boat over, the person fell in and started thrashing around, the Gator probably thought, game on, something is attacking and attacked back biting the person.
In the last 7-10 days in Florida, we’ve had a person killed by an Alligator and another person killed by a bear in South Florida near the everglades.
In Jacksonville where I live, we had a coyote attack a person out walking their dog, nobody was killed but the coyote was later caught and killed; after testing it was determined the coyote had rabies and everyone involved in the incident had to get rabies shots.
I have often seen people kayaking in INFLATABLE kayaks within a few feet of gators. I have also seen gators try to get aboard boats with 2-3 foot freeboard! Florid is NOT a statewide zoo!
Nosey they are lol
There is a spring near Tallahassee that has a tall rock formation next to it. As pledges we were taken there and told to jump in the spring below.
The water was COLD. The real shock came when we opened our eyes underwater and saw that we were surrounded by about a dozen alligators. The six of us immediately formed a chaotic bunch of arms and legs as we tried to merge into each other. When the brothers stopped laughing, they directed us to a gator free space where we could climb out. Gators definitely live in springs.
Florida man is facing stiff competition from Florida animal.
Florida is the new Australia.
If you flip over a larger size gator and rub their belly, they immediately go to sleep. Good to remember.
Thanks for the tip. Next time I flip a huge gator over, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind!
Another story I read said the alligator was startled by the kayak and started thrashing, tipping the boat over. Both the man and the wife went into the water, and the husband allegedly tried to save her. He received no injuries. The skeptic in me says this is a good way for someone to get rid of their pesky wife, especially if there was no other witnesses except the man and the gator. Just saying.
“While Florida is home to roughly 1.25 million alligators, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has recorded only 26 fatal alligator bites from 1948 to 2021.”
Sounds like the women attacked the gator with their canoe.
The hard part is the flipping them over. I’m not sure how to do that without getting seriously injured.
Glad to hear you calling them that. I was staying with friends one time who lived outside of Charleston, S.C. I woke up in the middle of night by something crawling in my hair. It was a giant cockroach. I caught it and flushed it down the toilet. I told the friend's wife what had happened, and she said: "Oh, that was just a Palmetto bug." I laughed and told her that in New York State, we call them cockroaches.
There were shoes in New York called Puerto Rican cockaroach killers in the 50s
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