2019-03-31 Alligator leaps for Wood Duck (video)

Note: If you are viewing this with a fast connection, this video is available up to 4K on my Vimeo site: vimeo.com/341025998

This spring our very large female alligator brought her 20+ babies to the end of a little spit of land that sticks out in the swamp from our yard and set up camp there for almost two months. From her lookout she could see two Wood Duck boxes not more than fifty feet away, and there were hens incubating eggs in each box. We’ve had gators appear just as baby ducks hatch, and I knew that she would be able to hear the babies when they eventually hatched. I was really worried that a hen would drop to the water to bring her babies out, and the gator would make the most of the “sitting ducks.” I didn’t want to see it in person, but I did want to know what happened. For weeks I got up early and set up one camera on the back porch that would include the area around both boxes, and I also set up two cameras using very high focal lengths in the living room window – one pointed at each box.

At least twice a day the gator could see the drakes come by and “pick up” their hens to feed, and then again see them “drop them off” at their boxes. Apparently the gator had watched the hen enter the box on the left numerous times and assumed that she entered that hole and flew through the back of the box. On this morning I had put out the wide angle camera about 7:05am, and at 7:11 this was what occurred. The gator launched herself at least 3 1/2' in the air - probably using her tail against the bottom in the shallow water.

Unfortunately we went out of town during the time that we think the babies hatched, however we did see a brood of 8 with one hen and a brood of 2 with another a couple of weeks after we returned. We don’t know why, but when they were about 4 weeks old I saw the 2 ducklings and the group of 8 ducklings alone in the swamp, and I never saw either of their mothers again. The 8 became 6 and they adopted the 1 that survived of the 2, and they raised themselves all alone in the swamp until the other day when they all began flying. They are in smaller groups now, flying into the yard to feed.

Taken on: June 8, 2019

Tags:

alligator

Wood Duck

Florida

predator

video

bird

reptile « less

Stats: 7,695 views / 10 comments

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