The body of a man who was extracting Frisbee from a lake in a public park in Florida, which serves as a habitat for alligators, was found with a severed arm on Tuesday, authorities said. This was the first fatal alligator attack in the country since 2019.
The episode happened on a 53-acre lake in John C. Taylor Park in Largo, Florida, a spokesman for the Largo Police Department said. She added that police believe an alligator was involved in the death.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission identified the victim only as a 47-year-old man.
The man was a “transient” who made a living selling frisbees to people who played disc golf on a course that ran parallel to the lake, and “he died in an alligator attack,” Paul Kozy, director of Parks and Conservation. Resources in Pinelas County, said in a telephone interview.
“He seems to have entered before the park opened – unfortunately it’s not a good time to be in the lakes, but especially during the alligator mating season,” said Mr Kozi, calling the decision “a mistake he seems to have made.” cost a life ”
Someone who was in the park around 8 am saw the body on the shore of the lake with one of his arms cut off, Mr Kozi said.
John C. Taylor Park has a golf course that runs along the lake. Park rangers came across the man trying to enter the lake in April, Mr Kozi said, and they told him another attempt would lead to him being barred from entering the park.
Local disc golfers avoid cheap Frisbee supermarkets and prefer specialized discs designed to perform specific types of throws, making their equipment valuable, Mr Kozi said. The man was not the first person attacked by an alligator on Tuesday while trying to take the money disks, he said, adding that a few years ago a man was bitten in the face by an alligator in the same lake, but survived.
The lake is six to eight feet down, Mr. Goat said, so you have to “kick the bottom” to find the disks.
A hole in the golf course is about 25 to 50 feet from the water, Mr Kozi said. “Of course, it may be wise for the golf club to consider moving the hole,” he added.
He described the lake as connected to other nearby bodies of water, making it “almost like a highway for alligators to move around the county.” There are signs warning people not to enter and even park rangers cannot step on the lake, Mr Kozi said.
During the mating season, which occurs in May or June, alligators become more aggressive and territorial, Mr Kozi said. Alligators are most active between dusk and dawn, according to the Wildlife Committee, which said in a press release that an alligator trapper was sent “to remove a nearby alligator” after the body was found.
Alligators are more likely to attack pets than to attack humans, Mr Kozi said. According to the Wildlife Committee, there have been an average of eight “major” incidents of alligators biting people in Florida in the past 10 years, resulting in a total of four deaths.
The remains of a 47-year-old woman who was walking her dogs were found in an alligator in 2018, and an alligator grabbed a 2-year-old boy at a Disney resort in 2016.
A population of about 1.3 million alligators can be found in “virtually all freshwater and saltwater bodies” in the state, the wildlife commission said. The group says alligators are “naturally afraid of humans”, but eating alligators, which is illegal, makes them dangerous to associate with food.
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