[Political Junkie Too]

Having gone to high school and college in Florida, I recall learning that gators don't immediately eat their catch. Gators drag it under the water to drown, and then they leave it for a day in two to decompose before eating it. That's probably why they found the body intact.

-PJ

[JBW1949]

At least the child didn’t suffer being mauled to death...
Drowning or freezing aren’t the worst ways to go out...

[infowarrior]

Having gone to high school and college in Florida, I recall learning that gators don't immediately eat their catch. Gators drag it under the water to drown, and then they leave it for a day in two to decompose before eating it. That's probably why they found the body intact.

Yep. Lucky they found the poor little guy before then, or there would not have been much to recover...

the infowarrior

[IFly4Him]

Correct - their jaws and teeth are used initially to clamp down on prey and then drown it - they don't chew - once their kill has "softened" up, they tear the flesh, usually by spinning, and then swallow it whole

I guess it's hard to react properly in that situation but their best chance was probably to jump on the animal and pull it out of the water by the tail - getting in a tug of war with it is a losing proposition...