Depending on where you live, an encounter with an alligator either makes for an uncanny nightmare scenario or just a regular Tuesday.
Because while these animals are rightly respected for their fearsome power , residents of states like Florida and Louisiana often attest that they can be a lot more curious about what humans are up to than you might expect.
But of course, it’s hard to beat humans in the curiosity department so it’s not so uncommon for the reverse to be true as humans gawk at the reptiles in their own swampy habitats.
And unfortunately, one video makes it clear that they’re not always as careful about this as they should be.
Be advised that the video featured in this article contains explicit language.
While visiting a national park in the Florida Everglades, TikTok user @devhlanger recorded an alligator named George as one of her friends flew a drone near him.
As she wrote in a caption for the video, “We were trying to get a close up of the gator with its mouth open and thought the obstacle avoidance would make the drone fly away.”
But short of making the drone teleport, there isn’t much that such an avoidance system could possibly hope to do once the drone ends up in an alligator’s jaws.
And unfortunately, this is precisely what would soon happen as George quickly latched onto the unit in an attempt to eat it.
And the situation became all the more concerning and enraging to @devhlanger’s viewers once smoke started billowing from George’s mouth.
As one commenter put it , “Not funny at all the smoke comes from the lithium battery.”
Indeed, such a turn of events is no laughing matter because according to the New Jersey Department of Health , lithium can have some serious health implications when inhaled. Specifically, it’s known to irritate and burn the skin, eyes, nose, throat and lungs. In the case of the lungs, it can do so to a life-threatening degree.
To make matters worse, lithium is corrosive when it’s exposed to water and other moisture.
In response to such concerns, the TikToker wrote that George is doing well and remained just as hungry after the encounter with the drone.
But if that’s true, it’s the result of incredible luck rather than good judgment on anyone’s part.
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And it also didn’t stop commenters from threatening to report the video to the park’s wardens.
And it would seem they have some basis for doing so as the National Park Service has the authority to prohibit the “launching, landing, or operation of unmanned aircraft” in its parks with very few exceptions.
And if you ever wondered why that is, the full video available here is a big part of the answer.
