A man in Florida was savagely attacked by a large 9-foot alligator this past Saturday as he let his Daytona Beach home.
Scott Hollingsworth expressed to local media outlets that he and his wife were spending that Saturday evening watching television when the pair heard a massive commotion slamming against the door.
“I jumped up and headed over and opened the door, stepped out while trying to reach the lights and barely got out the door and got my leg clamped on and [it] started shaking really violently,” he stated. “It happened so quickly, wasn’t a whole lot [of time]. It was just total surprise and shock. We see alligators behind our house, it’s a regular thing, but they always keep their distance from us.”
Hollingsworth explained that they thought the alligator was just 6 or 7 feet long and was absolutely shocked to find out that it was closer in size to a fully matured adult at close to 9 feet long.
“I really didn’t get a good look at it,” he stated. “When I saw what it was, I stepped back in the house and closed the door. Looked down and I had a large gash in the side of my leg. I was trying to put pressure on it.”
Hollingsworth explained that he needed surgery for his leg and that he is just thankful that the alligator failed to grab hold of his knee instead. He claimed that he will not get to enjoy riding his bicycle for quite some time because of this.
This attack takes place just a scant few weeks after a different massive 10-foot alligator blasted out of a pond and killed 85-year-old Gloria Serge, who at the time had been walking her dog next to a community retention pond within Spanish Lakes Fairways, which sits roughly one hundred miles away from Daytona Beach.
That alligator, which local media reported actually weighed up to 700 pounds, rushed out of the water and attempted to snatch up the dog. Serge attempted to fight off the alligator, but it instead grabbed hold of her foot and dragger her back down in the depths.
Officials for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission stated that while alligators are still a marked species on the federal endangered species list, they can still be found quite easily all over the state.
“Alligators occur in all 67 counties in Florida and can be found in practically all fresh and brackish water bodies and occasionally in salt water,” explained the state agency. “Although exact population figures are not known, Florida has a healthy and stable population of about 1.3 million alligators of every size. This population estimate is based on an estimated 6.7 million acres of suitable habitat.”
