There are many things you should not do in Florida (like buy a home in a flood zone, pet a fuzzy caterpillar or go outside in the summer), but feeding wild alligators should be near the top of that list.
A recent viral video shared by the Instagram account @OnlyInFloridaa appears to show a large pink man stupidly hand-feeding a sandwich to an alligator, while listening to Steve Miller Band’s “Space Cowboy” and sitting in a creek.
“Florida man is gonna Florida man,” reads the caption to the video, which has so far garnered over 25K likes, and over 1K comments.
The pink man, whose identity is unknown, can then be seen patting the alligator on the jowls as it floats away. He then rips off another piece of sandwich and splashes his hands on the water in what appears to be an attempt to feed it again.
As of now, it’s unclear if the video was filmed in Florida.
But according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), feeding a wild alligator or crocodile is a second degree misdemeanor punishable with up to 60 days in jail and/or a $500 fine.
“When fed, alligators can lose their natural wariness and instead learn to associate people with the availability of food,” says the FWC. “This can lead to dangerous circumstances for yourself and other people who could encounter the alligator in the future.”
In 2019, a Daytona Beach man was arrested and fined $100 for feeding an alligator near his home.
Florida’s alligator mating season typically runs from May to June, depending on temperatures, but the courtship period can start as early as March or April. There are roughly 1.3 million alligators in the state of Florida, says the FWC, and they can be found in all 67 counties.
If you see someone feeding an alligator, call FWC’s Wildlife Alert at 888-404-FWCC or visit MyFWC.com/WildlifeAlert.