Hissing Mama Gator Doesn’t Want Any Part of Florida Man
Florida Man Strikes Again!
DATELINE – Cocoa Beach FL
There are a lot of characters in today’s episode, including a hissing mama gator who’s pretty ticked off, a Florida man who, well, he may not know exactly what he’s doing, and a Florida TV reporter who REALLY should know better.
FLORIDA MAN – You think mama wants to protect her nest cup there? Okay, I get it. You ain’t happy. I get it, I get it. Here you come.
TV AUDIO – A Fox 35 exclusive. Tonight, a Cocoa Beach man got quite the fright when he walked into his backyard. This six foot alligator was right there ready to greet him.
At first he wondered what that gator was doing there, but he eventually figured out the mama was guarding her nest. Don’t mess with Mama, bottom line.
Fox 35’s Marie Edinger went to Cocoa Beach to meet the homeowner and the gator herself.
A homeowner’s terrifying run in with a gator desperate to defend her nest, which she happened to build in his backyard. She gets her front half through the fence, eventually literally missiled through it.
“It was incredible. And it caught me by surprise. I was shocked.” That’s Bill Geiger Jr, the man whose backyard the alligator invaded. Let me just go out there real quick and see what’s going on.
He says he doesn’t shy away from danger, apparently including alligators. Looks like she may gone down that way for some reason. The Fox 35 crew on scene, myself included, we’re definitely keeping our distance.
A gator expert at Gatorland says alligator mothers can be very protective of their young. “Please do not mess with mama alligators. Don’t feed any alligators. Don’t try to do anything with any alligators in the state of Florida. For one, it’s against the law. And secondly, they have the potential to be very, very dangerous.”
This pile of leaves right here is the gator’s nest. And this is the space in the fence where she was able to climb through. You can actually see all the dirt, markings and scratches from when she squeezed her way over to the nest.
That is a six foot gator. And this, you can see, is only a few inches wide. She was determined to get in and protect her young.
Geiger says the gator’s temporary home has impacted his backyard plans. He has a granddaughter who hasn’t been able to swim in the pool and his son hasn’t been able to bring over his dogs. The Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC) says each of these nests has an average of 32 to 46 eggs. And Geiger isn’t willing to meet the whole family of babies once they hatch.
“I called FWC to find out what to do and they told me, well, you’ve got to contact the city and got to do this. There’s a lot of red tape, but eventually, like,probably in a couple of days, they’re going tocome out, I hope, remove the gator and the eggs and relocate it.”
In Cocoa Beach. Marie Edinger, Fox 35 News.”
MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE WDHA STUDIOS – So there’s a lot going on behind the scenes with this whole thing.
First of all, Marie fine reporting there. But when she talks about the crew keeping their distance, she shot that right where the eggs were! Now she has her back to where the gator would be coming from.
I don’t know about you I’d be doing this scene from inside the house, Marie, never mind tempting fate.
Meanwhile, the knucklehead owner. The gator lives in a watery area few hundred yards, perhaps, from his home. He sees it all the time, the head poking up out of the water.
I don’t know about you. If I saw a gator trying to wiggle its way through my slatted fence, I don’t think I’d stand there taking video of it. Especially when it was halfway through and it was obvious from the hissing sound that she was angry.
Like, again, I’m on my way out.
32 to 46 eggs could be buried there. Can you imagine? Could you even begin to imagine if they all hatch at the same time?
Top 5 “Florida Man Strikes Again” Stories For July 2023
