This is the moment a 12-ft long alligator blithely videobombed a family at a Florida wildlife park.
Kim Joiner posted the clip of the beast strolling across a path to the Circle B Bar Reserve Polk Nature Discovery Centre Facebook page, captioning it: “Nature at its best.”
The clip has been shared more than 30,000 times with viewers reacting with astonishment to the size of the reptile.
According to posts in response to the video, the alligator has been nicknamed locally as “Humpback”.
More than a million alligators live throughout Florida, though the species remains listed as an endangered species because it closely resembles the endangered American crocodile (and hunters are likely to confuse them).
Though Florida has grown to the third-most populous state, fatal alligator attacks remain rare.
There have been 23 fatalities caused by wild alligators in Florida since 1973, according to data compiled by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Those fatalities were among 383 unprovoked bites not caused by someone handling or intentionally harassing an alligator.
Alligators are opportunistic feeders that will eat what is readily available and easily overpowered. It’s illegal to feed wild alligators because that causes them to lose their fear of humans. According to wildlife commission biologists, alligators seldom bite people for reasons other than food.
Wildlife commission statistics show Florida averages about seven serious unprovoked bites a year, and the frequency of these bites is rising. However, the likelihood of someone being seriously injured by an unprovoked alligator in Florida is roughly one in 2.4 million.