Video captures alligator charging toward fisherman in South Carolina
A man visiting Hilton Head Island in South Carolina with his family captured cellphone video of an alligator charging at a fisherman.
"My wife and three kids decided to go for a bike ride," said Micah Kimberlin, who recorded the video. "We came across a couple people standing [near a pond] and then we see an alligator...this gentleman is fishing kind of far away and it's headed directly towards him. That's when I started filming this alligator heading toward him."
No one was injured.
The alligator re-entered the pond shortly after charging on land.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources said it is likely that the alligator associated humans with food.
"My opinion is it was probably an alligator that has been fed," said Morgan Hart, alligator project coordinator for SCDNR. "It has learned that people fishing there have given it food in the past. It is very hard to unteach an alligator that people mean food."
Watch the video below
Hart said if you're ever fishing in a pond with a gator, you should keep your distance.
"If you're seeing alligators, they're approaching you, they're interested in your bait, your line, your bobber, you should pull all that gear out, step away, give them time to move on," she said.
Kimberlin's brother-in-law captured a photo of crews removing alligators from the pond where the incident happened.
SCDNR wants to remind everyone that a fed gator is a dead gator.
"Once an alligator learns to approach people for food, that is a dangerous animal that has to be removed," Hart said.
