Chilling Ring doorbell footage captures huge alligator prowling outside home
Petrifying footage captured on a Ring doorbell camera has shown an alligator prowling around outside the front porch of a home.
Unsurprisingly, the video came from Florida, where alligators are a common sight. The video shows the huge gator approaching the home before looking at it curiously.
The family's dog can be heard barking at the unwanted visitor. But the sound seems to prompt the end of the alligator's investigation, as it then heads off on its travels to a different location.
The home's resident, Lucia, told Fox News Digital: "I initially got the Ring doorbell camera for dog poop bandits in my yard. I also receive a lot of motion alerts from cars and people walking by on the corner lot."
The gator appears to stop and look at the house as it hangs out by the front porch (10 Tampa Bay/Youtube)She added: "The reason why I did check it was because my dog barked while I was sleeping at 4.30 and when I woke up later, I looked to see what got her riled up."
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Despite alligators being common in Florida, it was the first time Lucia had seen one on her property. It had its impact on her, as she now scouts for alligators in the early morning.
According to experts who handle alligators, there are certain key activities it's important to avoid. They are to not feed the alligators, to keep pets away from ponds or large bodies of water, only swim in the day and stay clear of the beasts if you encounter one.
The reptiles are considered pests in Florida, with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) saying they've inhabited the marshes, swamps, rivers and lakes in the state for centuries. They're founding all 67 counties across Florida.
The family's dog starts barking at the alligator which sends it away and also prompted Lucia to check the footage (10 Tampa Bay/Youtube)With more and more people moving to and living in Florida in recent years, many people are looking for desirable waterfront homes. With more people living by the water and participating in water-related activities, this means there are more frequent alligator-human interactions and a greater potential for conflict.
Florida runs a Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program (SNAP). The goal of this is to proactively address alligator threats in developed areas, while conserving alligators in areas they naturally occur.
An alligator is considered a nuisance if it is at least four feet in length and the caller believes it poses a threat to people, pets or property. Those less than four feet are not large enough to be considered dangerous to people or pets, unless handled.
Florida is home to millions of alligators (Getty Images)There are a total of 1.3 million alligators in Florida, according to the FWC. They do not relocate nuisance alligators as relocated alligators often try to return to their capture site.
They can create problems for people or other alligators along the way back to the original site. If an alligator does return, it would need capturing again which would likely be more difficult the second time.
Nuisance alligators would need to be relocated to remote areas where they would not encounter people to avoid creating a problem at the release site. However, these remote areas already have healthy alligator populations, with the ones there already having established social structures. Bringing in the nuisance gator would likely cause fighting, which could result in the death of a resident alligator or the introduced nuisance alligator.
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