TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A man is recovering after he was attacked by an alligator while out for a walk early Thursday morning.
Authorities said the man was walking in the Forest Glen and Golf Course community in Collier County around 5 a.m. when an alligator came up and bit him in the leg.
Deputies rushed to the scene and rendered first aid until paramedics arrived to airlift the man to a nearby hospital. Meanwhile, a second deputy spotted the gator heading toward a nearby lake and kept eyes on it until a trapper was able to locate it.
The trapper was able to safely apprehend the female gator measuring 6 feet 9 inches.
“It is alligator mating season, and CCSO urges residents to be cautious around bodies of water and vegetation where an alligator could have a nest,” the Collier County Sheriff’s Office said. “It was not known if this female gator had a nest near where the attack occurred.”
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, alligators are most active between dusk and dawn.
