Huge Alligator Crossing South Carolina Street Stops Tourists in Their Tracks
Sometimes wild animals have a mind of their own and do their own thing even if it means crossing paths with humans. That was certainly the case at a South Carolina beach recently, and tourists were in for quite a show!
ABC News shared a video on Friday, April 5th that was taken at Huntington Beach State Park. The video shows tourists out exploring the park as a very large alligator lazily crossed the street without a care in the world! All that walking must have tired it out because after he gets across the street, it decided to lay down and rest!
ABC News commenters all agreed that it was one very large alligator! @rmpbklyn said, "That dinosaur can do whatever it wants lol!" @Julie Jones and several others pointed out, "Leave him alone, he stayed in the crosswalk!" and @Rosebud added, "Aaaaand this is why I won’t swim in my uncles pool at night in SC. That dude is huge!!!"
Related: Alligator Enters Louisiana Home Through the Doggie Door Like It Owns the Joint
Interesting Alligator Facts
Other than being terrified of them and knowing they've been around forever I don't know much about alligators. I did a bit of research and learned that they are actually pretty interesting animals. At Treehugger I learned they are one of the oldest animals around, "American alligators appeared about 84 million years ago, and their ancestors evolved more than 200 million years ago. The only older reptiles are turtles and tortoises."
Alligators can't swim in saltwater like crocodiles can, which made me wonder what the alligator in the video was doing at the beach. Experts say that they do hunt near saltwater, especially in the Spring, which explains what the alligator was up to...he was looking for a meal!
And speaking of meals, while alligators are known to be carnivores, it was recently discovered that they eat more than just meat, "They deliberately eat fruit, vegetables, seeds, and legumes." Young alligators eat much smaller and easy to catch things like bugs, amphibians, and small fish. Adults feed on large fish, snakes, turtles, birds, and mammals.
Here's a really cool fact about alligators, "One of the weirder facts about alligators is that the sex of them is determined not by DNA but, rather, by climate. If the temperature in the baby alligator nest is warm, male alligators are born; if the temperature is cool, the babies are females."
Treehugger also says that alligators are the loudest reptile in the world and that during mating, they let out loud roars to attract mates, "For reference, their calls can reach 90 decibels—about as loud as a lawn mower—while human vocalizations typically max out around 70. Males will roar not just to attract mates but also to scare off potential predators."
Believe it or not, many people keep alligators as pets or emotional support animals, but these exotic pets are aggressive by nature and dangerous animals and should be treated as such.
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