JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Well, you don't see this every day. An alligator was spotted roaming the grounds at a Jacksonville school this weekend.
The incident happened on Sunday, so no classes were in session, but it did draw a large crowd.
Officials with The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the FWC were initially notified of a nuisance alligator located at the St. Clair Evans Academy in Jacksonville.
The approximately 10-foot alligator was captured alive and harvested off-site.
From Jan 1 to April 30 of this year, 117 alligators were harvested from the Jacksonville and Jacksonville Beach area.
Alligator Trapper Mike Dragich was at the scene and spoke with First Coast News..
“This is Florida. Home of gators. I’m just glad that it ended safely, and that no one was hurt, and gator gets to go home happy.”
Dragich ultimately got a loop around the gator’s neck, had an officer sit on the pole to keep its mouth shut, then pounced on the gator from behind and started wrapping it up.
No one was hurt, and the gator was driven off the property in a truck bed full of EMTs.
Jackson is hoping community leaders will make an effort to protect the school and surrounding neighborhood from another gator coming out for a stroll.
“They need better protection. They need to put a barrier or a gate on the creek to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again because it could have ended differently.”
May and June is alligator mating season. With increased rainfall, like we saw Sunday, many bodies of water are higher than usual, which might push gators onto dry land where they typically might not go to lay eggs.
FWC experts say to be careful walking pets and small children around water, especially at dusk and dawn when the gators are looking for food.
Statement from DCPS:
While this gator chose to visit the campus on a Sunday when no people were present, we do want to ensure the students are safe. All wildlife issues are handled on a case-by-case basis. In this case, facilities staff will survey the perimeter of the campus to determine where the alligator may have entered. They will take preventative measures as appropriate.
