Viral Videos Show Big Alligators Eating Little Alligators

Visitors at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland, Florida have recently spotted large alligators feasting on smaller gators.

Gator vs Gator

Several clips were recently posted online showing alligators eating each other at the 1,267 acre area. In one clip (above), an 11 to 12 foot gator can be seen chomping down on the lifeless body of a smaller alligator. That video was posted online by Alex Figueroa entitled “Gator eating Gator” and amassed over a million views in its first 48 hours.  “I was taking a morning walk this morning before work at Circle B Bar Reserve and I happen to witness this 11 to 12 foot alligator eating a smaller gator he or she killed,” the caption reads.

Andrew Lilyquist also captured video of a gator chomping down on a smaller one. “My heart was racing. I just saw that big head and I said OK this is going to be great,” he told WFTS. “He was huge. When he crossed the trail there was some of him on both sides.” Lilyquist went there to see if he could capture footage similar to that taken by Octavia Heart (below) posted a few days earlier.

Local Fish and Wildlife official Gary Morse said that this is normal behavior for alligators. “It’s typical alligator behavior. They are cannibalistic at times.”

It has been suggested that some of the videos are of different gators, but they could also be the same creature, even though it was filmed at different times. “What alligators will typically do is they’ll take that animal and stuff it some place for a week or two until it gets nice and soft and they can tear it apart,” Morse said.

Morse also noted that this behavior is sometimes territorial, while it can also simply be “cannibalistic.”

Male alligators are more aggressive, particularly from late March through mid-June, which is mating season.