A 79-year-old man survived being bitten by a nearly 7ft-long alligator while he was out for a walk around his golf-course community neighborhood in Florida, police said.
The attack happened about 5am Thursday at the Forest Glen and Golf Course community in Naples, according to a Facebook post from the Collier county sheriff’s office.
CNN obtained a recording of the 911 call made by the bitten man. He told an operator: “I’m bleeding. I don’t know how bad it is.”
The man added: “There’s a lot of skin ripped off I can see – probably some muscle. Go figure – out for a walk to stay healthy.”
An emergency helicopter crew took the man to a hospital to be treated. Meanwhile, a deputy who responded to the 911 call saw the gator heading to a nearby lake and tracked it, the sheriff’s office said.
A trapper soon joined the deputy, who pointed out where the alligator was. The trapper then collected the alligator – a 6ft 9in (206cm) female – and removed it from the community.
In its Facebook post about the attack, the sheriff’s office warned residents and visitors that it was alligator mating season. Deputies asked people to be especially careful around bodies of water and vegetation, where alligators nest.
Alligators are typically most active between the dusk and dawn hours, “so plan accordingly to reduce the chances of running into them”, the sheriff’s office post also advised.
Alligator bites are not unheard of in Florida, though they remain relatively rare. The state’s fish and wildlife conservation commission reported 11 alligator bites in 2022, nine of which were considered major and two minor. None of those bites were deadly, said the commission, which noted that the last fatal one of those was in 2019.
At least two other people had been bitten by alligators in Florida over the last four or so months, CNN reported. In June, a man in the state lost his arm after a 10ft alligator bit him. And in March, CNN said, another man in Florida was at his door when an alligator bit him.
About 1.3 million alligators live across Florida, the state’s fish and wildlife conservation commission has said. In fact, the flagship state university’s sports teams are nicknamed the Gators.
Trappers contracted by Florida officials kill alligators that are more than 4ft long and are considered threats to people, pets or property, according to CNN and the commission’s website.
The Collier county sheriff’s office’s statement did not say what happened to the alligator in Thursday’s biting episode after it was removed by the trapper.
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