‘Why are you trying to bite me?’ A gator and a paddleboarder meet at a Florida park
A nice day out paddleboarding took a frightening turn in Silver Springs State Park in Central Florida last week.
In videos posted to her Facebook, adventurer Vicki Reamy Baker shows an alligator getting a little, a lot, too close for comfort.
“What are you doin’? Get away from me!” she says as the reptile approaches the small watercraft near Ocala. “Oh s---! Oh no! Go away!”
Baker pushes the gator away with her oar and it retreats, hissing at her.
“Why are you messing with me?” the Florida woman asks the alligator. “Why are you trying to bite me?”
“Ma’am, I would suggest backing up considering you just made him pretty mad,” says a man off-camera.
“Someone has been feeding this one and made him very dangerous. He tried to bite my board,” Baker wrote in the caption.
Baker’s Facebook page contains various photos taken by witnesses that show just how close the gator got, and how big it was (about the size of the paddleboard itself).
Her new cover photo shows the animal’s snout up against the edge of the boat.
In the comments section, some people said that the paddleboarder harassed the alligator.
Regardless, when you go out on any body of water in Florida, you face risks from wildlife.
The Miami Herald reached out to the park and to Baker, but did not immediately hear back. The gator’s fate is unclear.
“The Silver River flows five miles from the head spring to its confluence with the Ocklawaha River, completely within the confines and protection of Silver Springs State Park,” reads the website’s paddling rental section. “The river offers a wide, wild and scenic paddle through Florida’s heartland.”
This story was originally published September 13, 2021 at 1:42 PM.
