Gator expert: Gator behavior and what to do in a gator attack

Welcome back. Some new details this morning from a medical examiner's report revealing that an alligator pulled a 71-year-old man underwater during this attack in Winter Garden. This happened as he was fishing. It was at Bradford Memorial Park, right near Lake Apopka, on Friday evening. One fisherman we spoke to says that he has seen several large gators in that same area. Every time I come here, I see at least four or five of them, without a doubt, and they are bigger than me. The alligator that is believed to be responsible for this has been captured and put down. This is the second deadly alligator attack in Central Florida in about four months. You remember back in June, a woman was killed while she was swimming at Little Big Econ State Park in Seminole County. Brandon Fisher is joining us this morning from Gatorland, and he's a good friend, of course, of Good Day Orlando. Always love having you, Brandon. Good morning. Yes, thank you. I know these stories break your heart when you hear them. You work so closely with these animals and, you know, you guys are so careful and you have to be cautious because you're around them all the time. When you first heard this story, what initially came to mind about what happened on Friday? I mean, honestly, for first, you know, it was it's actually literally close to my backyard. I live five minutes away from from this park. So I was very surprised that it happened that close to home. But again, you know, we're in Florida and this happens from time to time, you know, and and in all honesty, it's nothing we ever want to hear or see happen. It's a heartbreaking story. Let's kind of walk through some of the things that happened. We know that he was fishing on the shoreline, right? This is an area that's connected to this little cove, sort of, connected to Lake Apopka, which is filled with alligators. Probably one of the most populated alligator lakes, right? Lake Apopka is the fourth largest lake in the state of Florida, and there is a healthy population of alligators in this lake. So what do we need to be aware of? Listen, this is the state of Florida. People fish here all the time yeah what do we need to be aware of when we are that close to the water fishing doing something like this so really you know you have to you have to keep your distance from the shore you know i know it's easy you're fishing you want to be right down there the edge especially when you're reeling in your fish to be able to get it and bring it up but you got to keep some distance between you and the shore especially for incidents that happen like this you know be well aware your surroundings don't be standing in tall grass try to be in shorter grass have a good you know visual view of the shoreline and make sure you're even if you're reeling in that fish you know or casting out that you're paying attention to what might be sneakily coming up to you because they move silently and sometimes they just go underwater and they pop up right there and you don't know so you have to really be watching constantly while you're fishing do you think this particular gator was going after the man or the fish? Do you think the fish was what attracted it? More than likely, it was going after the fish. They don't see human beings as food. We are way too big for them. Even this size of an alligator, from my understanding, was almost 12 feet long, which is a really big alligator. They're eating small things, turtles, fish, and birds. So I know the gentleman was holding a fish for a photo, from my understanding. And, you know, our deepest sympathies and prayers go out to him and his family, even the eyewitnesses that might have been there. You know, that is a tragic scene to see. You know, it's not something you want to witness. So, again, they like small things, so they're going to go. And they're opportunistic feeders, so they're going to go for something that's easy. So he just happened to be kind of in the way and not able to get out of the way. Yeah, just heartbreaking. And Brandon, we know because we've sadly had so many stories like this that the gators, they don't even, if they do try to attack a human, they're not going to eat a human, right? They have a whole way that they do their prey, right? Yeah, it's super, I mean, in general, it's super rare for an attack to happen. There's only been a little over 30 since 1948 documented here in the state of Florida. So there is not a lot of attacks on humans that happen, much less fatality. fatal attacks so um you know they a lot of times they they don't see this as food so if they get a hold of a human being they're going to typically bite they might let go if they bite and hang on they're just trying to figure out what it is um again like i said we're not food they eat small things turtles fish and birds all right any life-saving move that if anybody finds themselves in a horrific situation like this that would deter a gator or or stun it or keep it away like we talk about that with sharks right that there's certain things you can do you know to make the shark let go what can you do with a gator i mean in all honesty nothing's a hundred percent so they're real sensitive at the very tip of the snout um but again the head's all bone but i'd rather take a broken hand than losing a body part um they're really sensitive at the base of the tail that says alligator is kind of hard to get back there but and then i would do anything and everything in my power to fight and try and get that gator to let go but again it's not a hundred percent you just got to really be aware of your surroundings and try not to put yourself in this situation as best as possible yeah just heartbreaking all around brandon thank you always love having you my friend great to see you as always all right brandon from gatorland