Giant Gator Captured After Stopping Traffic On Florida Highway

(Screenshot via Dailymotion)

This is the moment a huge alligator was captured walking across a busy highway – causing a traffic jam on both lanes.

The massive 10-foot creature was spotted in the Florida Keys backing up both lanes of traffic for over an hour.

Police were called to close off the road while animal rescuers snared the animal that was wriggling and writhing around the carriageway.

Video footage showed two men wresting with the reptile, before managing to lasso it with ropes and poles.

(Screenshot via Dailymotion)

 

They eventually managed to catch the errant beast, then dragged it to the side of the tarmac.

While one rescuer held its fierce jaws, the other taped its mouth shut.

 

A professional python hunter, hired by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Tom Rahill founds a alligator as he searches for Burmese pythons, in Everglades National Park, Florida on August 9, 2022. – Enrique Galan may freeze with fear every time he spots a yellow grasshopper, but that doesn’t stop him from regularly disappearing into the Everglades to hunt down Burmese pythons, an invasive species that has been damaging Florida’s wetland ecosystem for decades. When not working at his job staging cultural events in Miami, the 34-year-old spends his time tracking down the nocturnal reptiles from Southeast Asia. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images) 

Pesky Critters Wildlife Control trappers managed to catch and remove the gator from the busy road.

It was then loaded into the back of a truck to be returned to the nearby Everglades.

 

Satellite image of the Everglades. At the top of the image is the edge of the city of Miami. A bit lower is the start of the Everglades, a region of lakes and marshes, dominated by the mangrove. Opening onto Florida Bay are the Florida Keys.  (Photo by Planet Observer/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) 

The capture took place on Highway 1 in Key Largo Monday and once the gator was successfully removed, traffic was able to flow again.

The roads to Key Largo are sensitive to traffic patterns with limited roadway space available, to make the trek from Miami to Key Largo.

Key Largo, Florida is a major destination for tourist nationally and internationally with many flying in Miami about an hour north.

Locals are often accustomed to the lack of alligators due to the difficulty in alligators conducting the Everglades south to Key Largo trip.

Produced in association with SWNS Talker

Edited by Kyana Jeanin Rubinfeld and Jessi Rexroad Shull