We heard a large Alligator growling, pretty loud and deep too. Nothing to do but go try to find him.
However, we found one of his relatives in our trail when we turned to go over the small wood swamp bridge. It’s not wide and even a mid sized local spans the whole width.
Best to keep walking and he was kind enough to get up and head into the swamp. Good for us since we would have needed to walk past his head, not from behind which is the preferred route. Not great to walk between an Alligator and his escape path.
Anyway, he walked off into the water as we went by looking for the loud guy.
Never did find him.
That must be a young one, it is rather skinny. Important safety tip on alligator escape paths.
A juvenile, maybe 5-6 years old. They grow a for a year for the first 3 years. After that drastically slower to grow. Full adults lose the multi colored hide this one still has.
And yeah, never stand between an alligator and their obvious escape route. Instant change of character 🥹🥹