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BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. (WFLA) – Alligator mating season is ramping up in the Sunshine State, and residents are starting to feel its impact.
Alligators will be looking for love from April until June, meaning there will be a greater chance of encountering the massive reptiles this month, and one Florida woman’s gator encounter left people stunned.
Brandy Dentzau was in the Bonita National Golf & Country Club community in Bonita Springs on April 12 when she witnessed a gigantic alligator cross paths with a bicyclist.
Video of the encounter shows the alligator slowly walking across the road as a woman in a pink tank top stops her bike to take a picture of the large reptile.
After taking a picture, Dentzau can be heard asking the woman where the gator was headed. Then, she spotted another massive gator lying in the shade.
“So, are the lakes just behind you? Or are they over there?” Dentzau can be heard asking. “Oh, he in the wrong home then. Oh, there’s one right behind there, too.”
As she rounds the corner of a bush, she spots the second reptile.
“I know it’s scary, but it’s so cool at the same time,” she said. “Come on, buddy. You gotta go back home, you’re scary everybody, they can’t let their dogs out.”
Dentzau, who works in the newly built community, said there’s not much past the homes beside wetlands, adding that she’s sure residents “get a lot of [gators] as they built on the [gator’s] land.”
Another video shows Dentzau following a gator, attempting to lead the reptile back to the lake when it stops to sit under the shade near a fenced-in pool.
“Oh, he’s going to hide. Don’t go in there, buddy. You can’t be scaring people. Where’s your home? Let’s go back to the lake, how about that? Come on, keep going. Where’s the lake at? Nope, nope, that’s not a lake, that’s a pool,” she said.
The alligator halted and came to a rest in the grass.
According to Dentzau, she didn’t call officials on the alligator as it was “there first” and added that she didn’t know the woman on the bicycle but said the woman wanted to call on the reptile.
During mating season, males tend to become more aggressive. While alligator attacks are rare, residents should be vigilant near ponds and waterways or walking their pets.
Anyone who sees an alligator that appears to be a threat to people, pets, or property should call the FWC’s Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 1-866-FWC-GATOR.
