FLORIDA – Florida resident Tyler Futrell got to experience quite the in-person National Geographic while kayaking along the St Johns River. When he spotted a large animal crossing the river (initially thinking it was a pig) he pulled out his phone to grab a video. We’re all lucky he did so, because he managed to capture some wild footage of a black bear fighting off multiple alligators.
“WHAT THE F*CKKKK!!! I’ve never ever seen that before! Black bear vs gators“
You may not associate bears with Florida, but the Sunshine State is home to around 4,050 black bears. Black bear swimming distance and speed isn’t well tested, but they can swim at least a mile and a half in fresh water, with one bear swimming over 9 miles in the Gulf of Mexico. Alligators are much more common in the area, obviously, with around 1.25 million living throughout the state.
As for the shaky camera work, Futrell was trying to film while controlling a kayak, so give him some serious credit.
“Also, since there seems to be so many comments about the poor camera work, let me just put here that I was trying to control a kayak with 1 hand, and holding a zoomed in cellphone with the other. It was not an easy task, and I was way more concerned with not tipping my kayak than winning an academy award lol.”
He also plugged his metal band, Varanger on Spotify. Check them out if you’re into the heavy stuff.