Alligators can be ruthless in Florida, but one ten-year-old girl from Orlando got lucky and was able to make an escape from a dangerous situation.
Image Credit: Eelfica/Pixabay
The girl was reportedly swimming within the designated swimming area of a one-foot-deep lake when she encountered a nine-foot alligator. After it approached her, it clamped down on her leg.
The girl told Inside Edition that she tried hitting the alligator in the nose to make it let her go, but was unsuccessful in her attempt.
Related: Watch as a larger alligator eats a smaller alligator in Florida
“I was in the water and there was a mean nine-foot gator biting my leg,” she said. "The alligator grabbed my leg, I tried hitting it to release me but it didn't work."
Since the gator wasn’t letting go, she tried a new method that she reportedly learned at Gatorland; she put her fingers inside the alligator’s nostrils and pried upwards, forcing it to let go so it could breathe. In that moment, she was able to escape from the alligator’s mouth and get to safety.
"I used what they taught me at Gatorland, so I put my two fingers up its nostrils and it couldn't breath and had to breath from its mouth and then let my leg out," she continued. "The gator didn't do anything because he was too busy biting my leg and too busy with his claws in the sand. He didn't have any attack moves to take out my fingers."
Alligators, alongside crocodiles, have some of the most powerful biting forces per square inch in the animal kingdom. That said, experts have weighed in noting that would be very difficult (or nearly impossible) for the ten-year-old to open the gator’s mouth by prying alone.
Had the girl not have taken the action she did, things could have ended up much worse than they did, and instead of being gator food, she’s currently healing with stitches in her leg to mend the wounds caused by the alligator’s teeth and is expected to make a full recovery.
As for the alligator, an alligator control agency captured and euthanized the creature for public safety.
Worthy of note, Orlando made headlines last year when a toddler boy passed away following an encounter with an alligator in a Disney World lagoon. Deaths from alligators aren’t as common as one might believe, however.
Source: Inside Edition via New York Times