Biologists put camera beside carcass in Georgia swamp. Then came ‘gigantic’ creature
The discovery of a dead beaver gave some Georgia biologists a chance to try something a little grisly in Okefenokee Swamp Park: putting a camera on the carcass to see what happened next.
It would surely be eaten, they assumed, but what exactly would show up first?
The answer came quickly, when a 10-foot male alligator assumed ownership. However, the gator did not eat it immediately.
Instead, the gator played with it — for days, the photos revealed.
“The large alligator appeared the same day the camera was deployed and the first photo was captured of him trying to get it into his mouth,” the University of Georgia’s Coastal Ecology Laboratory wrote Feb. 28 on Facebook.
“He pushed it around for a bit but eventually left the beaver. ... The beaver sat there for two days getting pecked at by vultures before the alligator returned. He proceeded to push the dead beaver around some more, tried to drag it underwater, before taking a break and basking next to it for four hours! After he rested, he put the beaver in his mouth and swam off.”
This gruesome series of events played out in January at the Grumpy’s Turnaround section of the Green River in the park, which is adjacent to the 353,981-acre Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
The lab didn’t say how the beaver died, but the swamp is home to all types of venomous insects and snakes, not to mention very large alligators.
“It’s very possible (the alligator) killed the beaver,” the lab wrote.
“Often, alligators will hunt live prey that they can consume for multiple meals. They will stash them and eat off of them as they decompose as they are easier to consume in that state (since they can’t hold them with arms/legs like we can).”
Alligators are also skillful scavengers, so it’s possible it was stealing another gator’s food, the lab said.
Hundreds of people have reacted to the lab’s post, with many noting the alligator appeared to be “a gigantic freaking gator” in the photos.
“That’s a beast!” Art Patterson wrote.
“You see those feet on that beaver? That thing is huge as well!” Mary Ann Griffin posted.
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 8:02 AM with the headline "Biologists put camera beside carcass in Georgia swamp. Then came ‘gigantic’ creature."