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- A massive 13-foot alligator was spotted at Myakka River State Park devouring a huge snook on the shore of the lake
- Alligators eat fish all day but rarely does the enormous gator fall asleep with the fish in its mouth because of a bitter cold front in Florida
- Check out more articles about alligators right here
A massive 13-foot alligator at Myakka River State Park in Sarasota, Florida is going viral. The beefy gator was pictured devouring a large snook, a popular species of game fish in Florida.
There’s nothing particularly noteworthy about an alligator eating a fish but this encounter has gone viral for several reasons. First, the snook is a big one. This is a 13-foot gator that’s particularly wide around the belly and this fish still looks huge in the alligator’s mouth.
Second, the alligator stopped eating the fish in the middle of its feast and basically took a nap. It’s believed the alligator paused from eating the fish because of the bitter cold front in Florida that slowed down the cold-blooded reptile.
Pictures have been shared far and wide and I particularly love these because Myakka River State Park. is about fifteen minutes from my house. I also grew up camping in Myakka River State Park with my family and Boy Scouts all the time. It’s a place I’ve been going my entire life and it’s always cool to see your hometown in the news.
Huge Alligator At Myakka River State Park Eating Snook Goes Viral
What I’m finding to be the wildest aspect of these photos is how perspective on the size of the fish and alligator is lost. That is a HUGE snook and I’m actually going to hit up Myakka River this weekend with some Gulp! baits and see if I can get a snook to bite. And because the snook is so big the 13-foot alligator that’s as big as a dinosaur looks smaller than it does.
It was in the 30s and 40s here and at Myakka River State Park last weekend with wind chills or ‘feels like’ temperatures into the upper 20s. That’s the coldest it has been in this part of Florida in 5+ years. Normally, at this time of you’d visit Myakka River State Park and see the shores of the lake full of alligators like this.
Those images above came from photographer Robin Austin who shared them with local media outlets. If those embedded images from Facebook aren’t loading for you then you can click right here to see the alligator eating the snook on Facebook.
Gators Eating Fish In Florida, It Happens All The Time
It’s not exactly common to see alligators eating fish in Florida because they tend to eat the fish really fast and in private. Just a few weeks ago, this alligator was spotted eating a fish while walking across a golf course.
That dude was walking around like he owned the place. It’s also not uncommon for an alligator to eat other alligators. This photograph from Florida of the ‘biggest alligator ever seen‘ from a few months back shows it eating a tiny gator and it has to be seen in order to be believed.