- I'm Coyote Peterson and today I'm gonna go toe
to tooth with the apex predator of the Florida
Everglades, the American alligator.
(intense jungle music)
Today we're near Homestead, Florida on a private
wildlife preserve in the Everglades.
This environment is perfect for the American alligator
to thrive in.
My goal is to encounter one of these reptiles so I can
show you some of its amazing features up close.
I won't be using snares or ropes to capture it.
I want the interaction to remain as stress free on
the animal as possible.
Okay, you rollin'?
- [Voiceover] Rollin'.
- Alright so we've been cruisin' on the airboat
for several hours now.
We've seen lots of alligators.
We have not seen one that's been in shallow water.
And right by that bush, I can see him from this height,
it looks like a pretty good size alligator.
Let me go first.
You guys just kinda follow close with me.
We don't know how this alligator's gonna react.
You have to remember this is an aggressive reptile.
This is a very dangerous situation, okay?
I want you guys to be on point at all moments.
See, this is how we were able to track him.
All of this saw grass is kinda matted down and at the end
we probably have about a 10 foot alligator.
(water splashing)
My heart is racing right now.
Here we go, he's right here, and he's big.
It is a big alligator.
Alright, Chance, come up slow.
This is the apex predator that lives here in
the Florida Everglades.
This reptile's been on the planet for 150 million years.
They have outlived the dinosaurs, so this is about
as prehistoric as it gets for an animal encounter.
Look at the aggressive posture here.
Starting to open up his mouth.
He's saying, "I'm the top predator around here, Coyote.
"You better have some respect for me."
And trust me, you have to respect the American alligator.
(intense music and water splashing)
That's the first defensive posture that these gators
will use is to kind of flip the tail around.
All the muscle mass is in the tail and that's what
I really need to watch out for.
He can take out my legs with a single swing.
(water splashing)
The reason I wanna catch this alligator so I can get
it under control because it'll be safer for myself,
safer for the crew and safer for the alligator.
Basically what I'm gonna do is lunge on top of his
back and hold his neck in place.
Now, he's probably gonna squirm around a little bit,
as long as I keep my hands away from those jaws,
I should be okay.
Alright, you guys, ready?
- [Voiceover] Yeah, ready.
(water splashing)
- Wow!
Okay.
Hear that hiss?
He's not exactly happy to have me on his back.
Okay, go ahead, you guys can get in a little bit closer.
I think I've got him pretty well positioned.
Kinda got him in a saddle lock here.
Alright.
(heavy breathing)
Now that is the American alligator.
And this is one of the reptiles I wanna show you out
here in the Everglades because these guys are top dog.
Now the alligator has a bite force of about 2000 pounds
per square inch.
And that is the highest bite force on record in
the animal kingdom.
They have about 80 teeth in those jaws and their teeth
constantly are breaking off and they're constantly
losing them.
You can see, kind of in his front jaw there, he's missing
a few teeth and those teeth will constantly rejuvinate
themselves over the life of the animal.
And just 'cause he's calming down does not mean that
I need to be any more comfortable sitting here.
At any second he could erupt in action, throw me off,
and probably give me a pretty good chomp.
Alright, what I'd like to do is kinda get his jaws
under control here and show you a real intersting
thing about their eyeballs.
Alright, so what I'm gonna do,
come close his eyes down.
Alright, this doesn't hurt the alligator in any way,
but you see I've got my finger over his eyeball.
Right here, my pinky finger.
You see that?
Okay, so what's really interesting and unique about
all crocodilians is that they have what's called a
nictitating membrane.
And when I let that go, you're gonna see the nictitating
membrane, which is actually a third eyelid, kind of
fold back, and they use this membrane to protect
their eyes when they're swimming under water in all
of this murky saw grass and Everglades.
Nastiness.
Ready?
One, two, three.
Now, these reptiles are built like tanks.
Yeah, he said, "I've had enough of the underwater business."
Any time you come near an American alligator,
you don't wanna do what you just saw me do.
Bad idea.
I know exactly what I'm doing, but if you come out
here, Everglades, your backyard and you encounter an
alligator, give it respect.
Back away slowly.
They want nothing to do with you.
They're actually more afraid of you than you should be
of them.
Give them their space and you'll be just fine.
What a wild encounter with the apex predator
of the Everglades, the American alligator.
I'm sure you guys have some questions, maybe even some
gator encounter stories of your own.
Leave them in the comments section below and we'll
talk the American alligator.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
See you later buddy.
(water splashing)
If you thought that was one wild adventure,
check out these other animal encounters,
and don't forget, subscribe to follow me and the
crew on this season of Breaking Trail.