Video shows mouth full of large teeth biting trail camera in Oklahoma. What was it?
The terrifying experience of coming face to face with an alligator in the dark was recorded by a trail camera in Oklahoma.
It happened in a remote swamp in the southeastern part of the state, and the camera ended up in the alligator’s mouth. The video not only includes closeups of its large teeth, but the sound of them scraping across the camera.
“I have been documenting alligator behavior using game cameras for about five years, and I have never witnessed this behavior,” said Dr. Jared Wood, an associate professor of biological sciences at Southwestern Adventist University in Texas.
“I was shocked and amused. I immediately forwarded the footage to the other biologists collaborating on this project. ... Honestly, I have no idea why this alligator would attack the camera, but you better believe I’m going to do my best to find out why.”
It happened 4 a.m. April 14 and the alligator is an 8-foot-long female who was parenting a brood at the time, Wood said.
The trail camera survived the incident, he said. It was set up at the alligator’s nesting site in July 2022 as part of part of a multi-year study of alligators in southeastern Oklahoma. Researchers tagging alligators in the area with GPS tracking devices have set up cameras at every nest and den.
“We are trying our best to alleviate the public’s fear and misunderstanding of alligators living in Oklahoma,” Wood said.
Oklahoma is not known as an alligator hub, but it has populations in parts of Choctaw and McCurtain counties, as well as a few other southern counties, the state says. Females can reach 10 feet long in the state, while males get as big as lengths of 13 feet.
People on social media reacted with a mix of wonder and amusement to Wood’s video, with some trying to discern what message the alligator was sending researchers.
“This is something we have not ever seen before in our years of gator cams. Maybe he just wanted us to perform a dental check-up!” wildlife biologist Robert Bastarache wrote on Facebook.
Coincidentally, the same alligator has been recorded doing other peculiar things this year.
In March, she was seen below the surface with her mouth open, playfully waving her head back and forth. It appeared she was attempting to rinse her mouth out.
Another video caught her “performing her mating bellow” (growling), as she bounced in the water.
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