Residents in an upscale Florida community paused activities Thursday to marvel at the sight of a giant alligator crossing the road.
“Check out this big boy crossing the street in the Forest Glen Community in Naples,” Matt Devitt of WINK Weather stated Saturday on Facebook.
On Instagram, Devitt titled the same footage,“Welcome to Jurassic Park!”
In the footage, captured by a WINK viewer named Catalina, the alligator ignores its admirers as it plods toward one of the neighborhood lawns on trash day.
It was the third time in a month that Devitt shared a clip showing an alligator grabbing the spotlight merely by appearing in public.
One showed a large gator plowing through a metal fence, almost effortlessly, to reach the other side.
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The other showed perhaps a larger gator sprawled on a golf course, gazing menacingly toward a photographer. Deviit also proclaimed that to be a “Jurassic” moment.
But alligators appearing in public places at this time of year should not come as a surprise. Florida is home to 1.3 million alligators and, like many critters, they increase activity as spring approaches.
But it’s always astonishing when the larger of these prehistoric-looking reptiles reveal themselves beyond marshes and swamps.
The longest alligator recorded in Florida was a male from Lake Washington in Brevard County, measuring 14 feet, 3-1/2 inches. The heaviest was a 1,043-pound male captured at Orange Lake in Alachua County.
–Image courtesy of WINK News
