18-Year-Old College Student Bitten By Alligator At Everglades National Park

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – An 18-year-old college student on an outing with her professor at Everglades National Park was bitten by an alligator Friday.

According to Everglades National Park officials, the teen was apparently swimming or wading in the water at a location known as the Movie Dome, near the Pahayokee Trail, when she was bitten in the leg.

The young woman suffered two puncture wounds to her leg and refused to be transported by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. She wanted to transport herself.

Rangers say the park is safe to visit as usual.

Florida has a healthy population of alligators. There are alligators in all 67 Florida counties and more than 200,000 alligators in the Everglades.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida has averaged 7 unprovoked bites per year that are serious enough to require professional medical treatment. There have been 413 unprovoked bite incidents in the state since 1948.  Twenty-five of those attacks were fatal.

Remember, most alligators are naturally afraid of humans but may lose that fear when people feed them. Feeding alligators teaches them to associate people with food. For that reason, it is illegal to feed wild alligators.

The likelihood of being seriously injured during an unprovoked alligator incident in Florida is roughly only one in 3.1 million, according to the FWC.