Watch: Bear Fights Off Two Alligators in a Florida River

A Florida kayaker had a front-row seat to a conflict between two high predators on Tuesday. Whereas paddling down the St. Johns River close to Orlando, Tyler Futrell noticed a black bear preventing off a pair of alligators in the course of the river. Futrell was capable of seize all of it in a video that has since gone viral on social media.

A resident of DeBary, Futrell advised Information-6 in Orlando that he was paddling by himself that morning on a stretch of the St. Johns close to the mouth of the Wekiva River. He mentioned he thought the black bear was a wild hog when he first pulled out his cellphone to report a video.

“Probably not certain what that is,” Futrell says firstly of the video, which exhibits the black bear mid-crossing. “I feel it’s a pig?”

The bear audibly huffs and pants because it swims throughout the vast river, and you may hear the thrill constructing in Futrell’s voice as he pans to the correct, the place an alligator is swimming proper on the bruin.

“Oh man, alligator comin’ to say hello,” Futrell says. However as a substitute of claiming “hello” again, the black bear swats the alligator throughout the pinnacle a pair occasions. An enormous splash erupts on the water’s floor because the bear retains swimming over it with out lacking a beat.

The one-two punch prompts an “Oh shit!” from Futrell, who stays roughly 100 yards away from the scene in his kayak. “Go for spherical two! Go for spherical two!” he jokes because the bear retains chugging alongside.

Surprisingly, Futrell will get his want. Because the black bear nears the lily pads lining the far financial institution of the river, it runs into one other alligator. The bear, which is now growling loudly, swats it repeatedly, wheeling on the reptile with its two entrance paws because it swims proper over the alligator’s again.

At this level, roughly halfway by means of the video, Futrell lastly realizes it’s a black bear he’s filming and never a pig. He pans away from the bear for a second because it growls but once more, after which picks it up within the body as one other massive splash breaks the floor. Though it’s exhausting to make out within the video, the bear then climbs up the far financial institution and exits the river by means of a dense jungle of palm timber and cypresses. The gator then smacks its tail on the water, seemingly out of frustration.

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“Mr. Alligator’s pissed,” Futrell says. “I’ve by no means seen that earlier than in my life.”  

Though it’s uncommon to see the 2 critters duke it out, Florida is house to a minimum of 4,000 black bears and greater than 1.3 million alligators, in accordance with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee. And whereas gators are clearly extra at house within the water, bears are surprisingly good doggy paddlers in their very own proper. They will simply cross a river, and so they’re often noticed on Florida seashores and even swimming out within the Gulf of Mexico.