As a native Floridian I can confirm that this is not normal even in Florida. It is NOT normal at all for an alligator to approach a group of University of Florida students having a lakeside picnic (at Lake Alice in Gainesville), and proceed to ravish their picnic. Besides the fact that the UF mascot is an alligator there’s really zero connection between UF students and gators…until now?
Michael Tamayo and a friend were picnicking by Lake Alice on Wednesday when an unexpected guest decided to join.
An alligator crept up to the University of Florida students’ picnic blanket and started to chomp down on a sandwich.
A bystander, Richard Reed Jr., caught the gator encounter on video, and at close proximity. Tamayo posted the video to his Facebook page saying, “Just a hungry little gator looking to score some food.”
The gator made his move when Tamayo was taking a picture of Reed and his wife. By the time Tamayo turned around the reptile had hold on his sandwich.
After videoing the gator snacking, Reed helped Tamayo shoo the reptile back into the confines of the lake.
Dr. Kent A. Vliet, a UF researcher who has studied alligators for 35 years, said he heard of the same type of situation about two years ago. An alligator came to visit a group of people near Lake Alice for lunch, got some of their food and left without showing any aggression.
What the fuck am I even saying? Of course this is normal for Florida. The abnormal is the norm in the Sunshine State. There’s a reason we have hundreds and hundreds of articles tagged as ‘WTFlorida‘. Earlier this week a golfer snapped a photo of an alligator eating a python eating the alligator. This shit goes down EVERY SINGLE DAY down there.
For more on this story CLICK HERE to head on over to WUFT.org!