HILTON HEAD, S.C. – An alligator has been caught on video eating a small shark off the coast of South Carolina.
The Island Packet reported that Kristen Poillon captured the video, which shows a 7-foot alligator chomping on the bonnethead shark at Skull Creek.
The alligator was out of its normal habitat and swimming in the saltwater of Skull Creek, a part of the Intracoastal Waterway, according to the paper. Locals have reportedly given the alligator the name “Charlie.”
“He doesn’t seem aggressive,” Poillon told the Hilton Head Island Packet. “He mostly shows up when the fishing charter boats start back to their season because the eating is good for him off the dock when they clean the fish.”
Scientists believe encounters between sharks and alligators are becoming more frequent.
Brian Silliman, a Duke University ecologist, wrote about it in a study on alligators appearing in saltwater.
“It’s the old norm, the way it used to be before we pushed these species onto their last legs in hard-to-reach refuges. Now, they are returning,” he wrote.
