‘Savage:’ Watch an alligator get eaten whole by an unlikely creature at Florida lake
Normally, alligators do a lot of the consuming in Florida.
But Mother Nature doesn’t always act accordingly.
Wildlife photographer Shellie Gilliam saw a king of the swamp swallowed whole on Saturday afternoon — by a bird — at Lake Apopka, outside Orlando.
OK, so the scaly little guy wasn’t fully grown, but color us impressed, anyway.
In a video posted to her Facebook page on Monday, Gilliam shows the great blue heron consuming its reptilian snack whole.
“Yes, a bird can eat an alligator! If it’s savage enough!” wrote the owner of the Florida Wildlife & Exotic Animal Sanctuary and Rehabilitation Center in Palm Shores. “This Great Blue Heron spent a half hour killing and consuming a large juvenile alligator.”
Gilliam, went on to say she wasn’t sure it was an alligator in its jaws at first, and was duly shocked.
“Just wow!” said her post. “Nature continues to me amaze me every day.”
Her commenters were in awe, too.
“How is that possible?” asked one observer, who added further Googling was necessary.
“Wow, how savage,” agreed another of the wetlands bird, known for its strong, dagger-like bill and varied diet of such animals as frogs, snakes, turtles and even small mammals.
The videographer’s husband, fellow shutterbug Danny Gilliam, also got some dramatic shots that day.
“Crazy sequence,” he said of the series with the Instagram caption, “Alligator dinner.”
This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 4:22 PM with the headline "‘Savage:’ Watch an alligator get eaten whole by an unlikely creature at Florida lake."
