Alligator basking near Florida river

Alligator hisses at Florida tubers floating way too close

There’s no better way to spend a sunny afternoon than relaxing on a tube while gently floating downstream. Doing so in Florida, a state with alligators in every county and virtually every body of freshwater, however, is…perhaps not the wisest decision to make.

A group of women realized their mistake a little too late while tubing down a Florida river and getting way too close to a basking alligator.

With nothing more than plastic floaties separating them from the water, the women drifted down the river in Ichetucknee Springs State Park. Now, in their defense, the park does advertise tubing as an activity on their website.

Directly under that, however, they write, “Alligators and snakes are present along trails and waterways of this park. They usually eat fish, turtles, and other small animals. However, alligators may attack larger animals such as deer and have been known to attack humans.”

There’s obviously some risk associated with tubing in the Florida park, which became abundantly clear when one of the women unintentionally floated directly into the path of a distressed, hissing alligator.

“Jessica, it’s an alligator,” the startled woman holding the camera says as she watches her friend drift closer to the angry reptile. “Oh, it’s hissing. Are you ******* kidding me right now? It’s hissing at her. Oh my god.”

@carolescrazylife That just happened! 3 of us besties on the river floating. #florida #ichtuckneesprings #gator #alligator #floridagirls #nature ♬ original sound – Farmgirl

Women escape hissing Florida alligator unscathed

Alligators aren’t naturally aggressive toward humans. They do, however, thoroughly enjoy their personal space. And venturing directly up to one, whether it be on foot or on a float, is a sure-fire of upsetting a gator to the point of aggression.

Luckily, the women escaped the Florida alligator with a warning. Though the gator made its displeasure known, it didn’t bite or swing at the intruding tubers.

That said, the situation could have gone in a very different direction. Alligators have a natural fear of humans, but that doesn’t mean they won’t react when threatened.

If this gator had charged or reacted to the tubers, it would have been labeled a “nuisance” animal. The majority of crocodilians (alligators and crocodiles) who receive this label are euthanized shortly thereafter.

Keeping yourself and your local wildlife population safe is easy, though. First, never feed wildlife, especially predators such as alligators. Once they associate humans with food, that all-important natural fear disappears, leading to a far greater risk of an attack.

Additionally, keep a respectable distance between yourself and any wild animal, not just alligators. For gators, that means at least 30 feet.

To maintain this distance, it’s important to stay out of water housing an alligator. Because Florida houses so many alligators, this might mean taking your tube elsewhere or sticking to the swimming pool.