A family visiting Fort Myers Beach from Iowa encountered an unexpected sight on Saturday: an alligator swimming near the shore.
“I seen everybody looking on the beach, and I'm like, well, I better go investigate, and I came down here and sure enough, it was a gator, and we're from Iowa, so we never, ever see anything like this. It-it's just unreal,” Justin Betts said.
Betts had been looking over the beach with binoculars from his balcony alongside family and friends when he decided to head downstairs for a closer look. He spotted the alligator swimming near the sand, its head bobbing in the water as waves crashed around it.
“It was pretty crazy, and it was just floating and getting tucked underneath the water, but it was cool,” Elaina Modderman, also from Iowa, said.
Ursula Pfeiffer, a visitor from Germany who has been coming to Fort Myers Beach for over 30 years, said she had never seen an alligator there before.
“I saw a lot of animals. Beautiful animals, birds and fish and dolphins. But in the end, we ended up seeing an alligator across quite close to the beach,” Pfeiffer said.
While spotting an alligator in the Gulf may be rare for visitors, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) says it isn’t uncommon. Alligators primarily live in freshwater but can swim in the Gulf and are often seen in nearby areas like Lovers Key.
FWC advises people to keep their distance if they encounter an alligator.
“No matter where you are. Watch what animals are around you,” Marie Modderman, another visitor from Iowa, said.
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