Massive Alligator Stops Traffic On Florida Highway
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami) – A massive alligator, more than 12-feet long, caused a temporary road closure recently in Tallahassee.
The giant reptile, weighing 463-pounds, wandered onto I-10 around midnight on June 3, causing the Monroe Street exit to be shutdown to keep drivers away after it decided to take a stroll across the highway.
Leon County gator trapper Broderick Vaughan, who has been trapping alligators for a decade, says it is the third biggest gator he has ever captured.
This gator was 12-feet, 1-inch long. The biggest he ever captured was 12-feet, 8 inches.
Vaughan captured the gigantic gator, taped its snout shut and loaded it on his truck using a hoist machine.
Unfortunately, the alligator was hurt on the highway.
"He had been hit by a truck," said Vaughan. "His head was cracked up pretty bad."
Due to the severity of the injuries, the gator was euthanized a few days later.
Alligators are move aggressive this time of year because it is the middle of alligator mating season, which runs through the end of June.
During that time, Florida's estimated 1.3 million alligators are more active, more visible and more aggressive as they mate, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Female gators begin making their nests and laying eggs in June and July and the babies hatch around mid-August through early September.
FAST FACTS: Tips For Avoiding Alligator Attacks
On May 31, a giant alligator broke into a home in Clearwater and a day earlier, an alligator had to be led back to his lake after getting a little aggressive outside of a Venice drugstore.
On May 23rd in Collier County, police had to wrangle a giant gator off the road and on May 3, a neighborhood alligator in Winter Gardens was scaring off postal workers, preventing them from delivering the mail.
Then on April 12, someone shot amazing video of a giant alligator strolling down the street in Fort Myers. The gator, about 10-feet long, was simply strolling across a busy intersection.
