One doesn’t go kayaking through Florida waters without being prepared for some sort of gator encounter. That said, when a kayaker saw a 14-foot alligator enter the water and move toward her boat, she wasn’t sure if she was terrified, excited, or both. Karen Haigis Buzzi shared a video of her gator encounter to Instagram.
“That guy is BIG! It looks fake,” Buzzi says in the video.
Just as Buzzi starts to say that the alligator appears to be going into the bushes, the animal turns toward her and smoothly slides into the water. Buzzi gasps.
“Oh my God!” she exclaims. “Oh my God.”
[RELATED: ‘Don’t. Freak. Out.’ Alligator Launches Toward Paddle Boarders]
“BIG excitement today while kayaking Juniper Springs,” Buzzi’s caption reads. “He got my heart pumping for sure! (His name is Elvis and is about 14 feet long).”
Juniper Springs is in Florida’s Ocala National Forest, where alligator activity is very common. In fact, officials recently had to close Juniper Springs’ waterway input for kayaks and canoes “due to the presence of an adult ‘nuisance alligator’” that repeatedly approached kayakers.
Watch as a big alligator approaches a kayaker here:
And here’s the post announcing the temporary closure:
Header stock image by Elizabeth W. Kearley/Getty Images