Florida is home to some of the most unique wildlife in the country.
One expert outdoorsman thought he did everything right.
And a Florida man came face to face with his worst nightmare at this hunting hotspot.
An alligator trapper is attacked at a popular Florida hunting resort
Dealing with nuisance alligators is an unpleasant fact of life living in Florida with more than 1.3 million of the animals in the state.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission hires alligator trappers to remove the gators that are nuisances from communities.
Alligators captured under this program are taken to farms or zoos to live out their days.
Usually, the process of trapping and removing the nuisance alligator goes smoothly.
But trapper Scott Lang found himself in the fight of his life after he tried to release a nuisance alligator.
He was attacked at the Alligator Alley Outfitters in Arcadia, Florida when he was doing a routine release with his 14-year-old son Ashton Lang.
Lang had taped the alligator’s mouth shut with tape when he captured it.
The alligator, which was estimated to be 10 feet six inches long, bit Lang on the left arm after it was released.
“We need help. I got a man was bit by an alligator,” a caller to 911 said. “He’s a state trapper and he was releasing a gator. … We’re an alligator farm and he was releasing it here.”
The caller said that Lang’s left arm had been severely mauled by the alligator.
“His (14-year-old) son Ashton Lang provided life-saving care,” the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office said in a report.
Lang was flown by helicopter to Sarasota Memorial Hospital for treatment.
The alligator was put down shortly after the attack.
Alligator Alley Outfitters offers hunting trips for wild hogs and alligators on private land.
“All of our alligator hunts are fully guaranteed and take place in a private hunting preserve so we can offer hunts 365 days a year,” Alligator Alley Outfitters states.
Alligators are especially dangerous this time of year
Alligator attacks are extremely rare in Florida, but the risk increases during mating season.
The mating season for the reptiles starts in April and runs through early July.
Male alligators become more territorial while they search for a mate.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist Dan Navarro warned that alligators could get closer to people as they are pushed out of their territory during mating season.
“There’s more displacement. Some of the smaller alligators [are] getting pushed out of certain areas by the larger males, and in doing so, then the alligators end up in places they might not be,” Navarro explained. “They might end up going more out towards roads or chased out into people’s yards or something like that. They’re more in contact with people, but not because they’re more aggressive towards people.”
Male alligators will battle each other while they try to court females.
“You’ll sometimes see alligators with serious injuries to their tail or their face,” Navarro stated. “Sometimes they might have chunks missing of their tail, a pretty serious gash or a missing limb. They fight. Sometimes they eat each other, and that kind of just increases in frequency during this time of the year slightly.”
Dealing with alligators is one of the challenges of living in the Sunshine State.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
