Disney Alligator Attack: ‘There’s No Doubt It Was Looking for Dinner’
It’s not surprising that alligators were roaming just off the beach of Disney’s Seven Seas Lagoon where a 2-year-old was grabbed by one. The state has more than a million alligators, and they can be found in all kinds of water, not just swamps and rivers—swimming pools, too.
“This is Florida, and it’s not uncommon for alligators to be in bodies of water,” Orange Country Sheriff Jerry Demings told CNN.
On Tuesday night, an alligator grabbed the young boy whose family was staying at the Disney resort near Orlando. The child was wading along the lagoon’s edge when the animal dragged him into the water. His father then tried to wrestle his toddler from the jaws of the animal—in vain.
The area where the resort is located has a large lake system. The lagoon is connected to a series of canals that all feed into larger bodies of water and the alligator could have sneaked in through a swamp, unnoticed.
“Even at Disney, wildlife is wildlife,” said Eileen Tramontana, Executive Director of the Trout Lake Nature Center in Florida and a wildlife specialist.
“Even if you tried to evacuate all the nuisance alligators that get into swamps or pools at night, you probably couldn’t. An alligator is not easy to spot—it’s a dark, ambush animal that generally lays back quietly before it attacks,” she adds.
Tramontana notes that despite its prolific population, the alligator is still listed as an endangered species, which means that you cannot kill one just because you see it. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program permits the killing of approximately 7,000 nuisance alligators each year.
It’s not common for humans to be attacked by alligators (the animals’ primary diet consists of fish, turtles, birds, small mammals and amphibians). But because of their predatory nature, they can easily target pets, livestock and occasionally—people.
Since 1948, Florida has averaged about five unprovoked bites per year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. During that period, slightly more than 300 unprovoked bites to people have been documented in Florida, with 22 resulting in deaths.
“A small child is the size of typical prey,” said Tramontana. Alligators are opportunistic and will feed off what is readily available to them. “This is normal behavior. In this case, there’s no doubt that the alligator was looking for dinner.”