Wild video from SC shows massive alligator devouring a 6-foot gator whole
This is the brutal moment when a 6-foot alligator gets devoured by an even bigger, toothier and hungrier alligator.
The smaller reptile hangs lifeless and limp in the jaws of the powerful predator. For a moment, when the smaller gator’s left front leg appears to twitch, it seems like there might be a chance he can escape the Godzilla-like creature now crawling out of the South Carolina waters.
Instead, with a few shakes of his head, the bigger beast swallows him whole before calmly lowering himself back into the water.
It’s all over in 24 seconds.
The shocking footage was posted to Twitter by Taylor Soper on Thursday evening.
“This happened in my parents backyard today... The snack is a 6ft gator,” Soper wrote. He then added the hashtag #lowcountrylivin.
Soper later confirmed the incident happened near Murrells Inlet, a fishing village about 13 miles south of Myrtle Beach. In a follow-up tweet Soper gave all the credit to his father for being the one who captured the gruesome snack attack.
Since it was uploaded, the video clip has been viewed more than 1.5 million times, and people on the internet are shocked.
“Y’all willing living next to dinosaurs is wild to me,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another person got inspired and re-cut the video with the theme song from the 1993 movie “Jurassic Park” playing in the background as the bigger alligator gobbles up its fellow reptile.
One woman asked, “Is that.. Can we call that cannibalism..?”
According to wildlife experts at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the short answer is yes.
Alligators eating fellow members of their own species is not unheard of, and adult alligators are known to eat other — and typically smaller — alligators.
“Alligators are carnivorous and prey on any animal that is available,” a five-page report by SC DNR on alligators in the state notes.
Juvenile alligators, which are less than 4 feet long, will eat crustaceans, snails and small fish. Sub-adults, which are 4 to 6 feet in length, are known to eat fish, crustaceans, small mammals and birds.
And mature gators, which is any alligator over 6 feet long, are known to eat fish, mammals, turtles, birds and, yes, other alligators.
“Diet is dependent on where the alligator lives. In coastal marshes of Louisiana, adult alligators primarily feed onnutria, whereas in Florida and northern Louisiana, rough fish and turtles comprise most of their diet. Cannibalism is common among alligators in Florida and Louisiana,” the pamphlet from SC DNR said.
Alligators are a prehistoric reptile whose appearance has been virtually unchanged since the days they roamed the Earth alongside the dinosaurs.
In South Carolina, these lizard-like creatures can grow to lengths of more than 13 feet and live to be more than 60 years old.
David Lucas, a spokesman for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, reviewed the video.
After watching it, he said it was difficult from the clip to determine a size estimate of the larger alligator, but he reiterated that alligators 8-10 feet or larger are common in South Carolina waters.
But in a strange plot twist, Soper indicated on Twitter that this feeding time may have been nature’s way of delivering some karmic justice.
“Idk it’s pretty damn wild,” Soper wrote. “What’s really cool is we saw the one that’s getting eaten in this video eat a small baby last weekend so there’s some craziness going on over there.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2021 at 2:31 PM.
