Watch manatee ‘chase’ gator at Florida park, where the species ‘peacefully coexist’

Dennis Osha was “in the right place at the right time” to film a manatee chasing an alligator at a Florida state park.

“I saw the gator and decided to grab a video since it was close and the manatee just happened to pop in,” Osha wrote in an Instagram message.

Osha took the video on July 30 at Myakka River State Park in Sarasota, about 60 miles south of Tampa.

The alligator can be seen swimming through murky water as the manatee tags along behind it.

“I think it was just curious,” he wrote.

The Myakka River winds through 58 square miles of habitat, including wetlands, prairies and pinelands.

Manatees can be seen near the shore of the lower river.

Alligators and manatees often share habitats, and they usually don’t bother each other, Cathy Beck, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey told Save The Manatee Club.

Beck told the organization that biologists have seen mother manatees protecting small calves from large alligators, but otherwise they never see alligators acting aggressively toward the sea cows. Alligators have been known to grab radio transmitters attached to manatees’ tails thinking that they’re food, but they quickly let them go, according to the website.

When Osha was at the park, he said he saw about five other alligators and three other manatees swimming in the same area.

“They seem to peacefully coexist since they share the same habitat,” he wrote.

This story was originally published August 4, 2022 at 6:34 PM.