Florida Deputies Capture Alligator Roaming Local High School

Florida deputies recently captured an alligator that was roaming the property of a local high school.

The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office recently shared video of deputies working to capture an alligator on the grounds of Parrish Community High School in Parrish on the morning of Tuesday, April 22.

The video shows deputies using ropes to wrangle the gator.

“Y’all make this look like you do this on the regular,” a bystander can be heard saying.

“We do,” a deputy says. The gator hisses and thrashes as the trapper tries to get the reptile under control.

“We’re still gonna have a pretty good fight with this one,” a deputy says. While they work to tape the gator’s snout closed, it can still be heard hissing and growling.

“This one is not happy,” a person says.

The alligator was loaded into a pickup truck and transported to a nearby body of water. The alligator was let out, and it walked backwards into the water.

“He’s moonwalking,” a woman says.

“Many thanks to Manatee County Sheriff’s Office for their fearlessness and professionalism while keeping our campus safe from… Alligators,” Parrish Community High School wrote on social media.

While injury or death caused by alligators is rare in Florida, there is significant human-alligator conflict. Nuisance alligators are defined as being over 4 feet long and considered a threat to people, pets or property, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Nuisance alligator trappers licensed by the agency respond to some 10,000 calls annually.

Because healthy alligator populations exist in all available habitat in all of Floridas 67 counties, nuisance alligators are generally not relocated to the wild, where their introduction can lead to territorial fights and death, according to the FWC. Nuisance alligators typically become the licensed trappers property to sell for hide or meat, or to sell live to a zoo or farm.