The 12-foot, 463-pound beast was hit on Interstate 10 in Leon County on June 3, and initially survived the crash, said Broderick Vaughan, of Vaughan Gators LLC, in a Facebook post.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife's nuisance alligator contractor said he got a call about a gator on an exit ramp, and initially thought it was a tire tread from a semi. "I send my buddies to check the ‘iguana’ and advise. They get on scene and locate the ‘swamp lizard.’ He wasn't dead either!!,” said Vaughan in the post.
“I’ve been the trapper here in Leon County since April 2010 and that was the third biggest gator I’ve captured,” said Vaughan to the Naples Daily News. “That was a pretty big one and he wasn’t happy that we were trying to remove him.”
Unfortunately, the gator’s injuries were more severe than initially thought, and it had to be euthanized a few days later, said Vaughn to the paper.
Currently, Florida is in the midst of alligator mating season, which typically runs from May to July depending on the weather. During this period, it’s not uncommon to see massive gators like this one out and about searching for mating partners, says the FWC.
Last month, an 11-foot gator broke through a low kitchen window and had to be removed from a Clearwater home.
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This article appears in Jun 20-27, 2019.