Historically, hunting decimated the American alligator population, leading to their endangered species classification. Thankfully conservation efforts have allowed their numbers to increase and the the alligator was removed from the list in 1987. This came at a cost for the prehistoric, armour-clad species though; ironically, in-order to save alligators in the wild, they are now farmed for their skin and meat.
This means that the alligator is now listed as a “Least Concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and we get to watch gnarly golf-course duels like this one.
The video was filmed and uploaded by Floridian golfer and YouTuber BdbradberryFL. After spotting the two gators battling it out on the water’s edge, he grabbed his camera phone and ran straight over! Pretty brave—luckily the gators were preoccupied and exhausted; they didn’t take any notice of the camera.
The video showcases both the brute-force of the gators’ bite and toughness of their skin. One of the alligators was biting pretty hard on the other’s head but, after rolling and forcing the release, it looked OK! Here’s a gnarly wildlife fact for you: alligators super-touch ‘armour’ is actually formed from lots of small scale-like bones called osteoderms, just like a triceratops—cool eh.
In the end the golfers weren’t phased in the slightest by the gator-battle; one of the golfers asked “do you want to come back and play this hole?” “No, we can go ahead and tee off,” replied the other! If you happen to encounter an alligator on a golf course, just be careful not to get too close and admire them from a safe distance; according to Wikipedia, there have been two fatal alligator attacks in the US this year—both of these happened in the water however!
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