An alligator attacked a 23-year-old man Sunday and ripped his arm off near a bar in Port Charlotte, Florida.
When Jordan Rivera fell into the pond located behind Banditos Bar just before the establishment closed, the creature took it as an opportunity to pounce, NBC 2 reported Tuesday.
“Those gators, I didn’t truly understand them until I woke up in the hospital and, ‘Oh, gator got your arm,'” he said while recovering in his bed at Gulf Coast Medical Center.
Despite the loss, Rivera appears to have a positive view on the situation, stating, “I didn’t lose my life; I lost an arm. It’s not the end of the world, you know.”
Rivera does not remember much about what happened but he does recall the lines for the restroom were quite long that night. Therefore, he went around the back of the building to relieve himself.
“So I ended up walking over to the water hole, I didn’t realize how big it was at the time, as I was going over there something happened where I either tripped or the ground below me just went down. I ended up in the water. And that’s literally the last thing I remember,” he explained, adding that when he woke up he was in the hospital.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), alligators have lived in the state for centuries.
“Although many Floridians have learned to coexist with alligators, the potential for conflict always exists,” the agency said.
Per the Key West Aquarium, alligators primarily eat fish, birds, turtles, other mammals, and reptiles:
If the alligator is big enough it will eat larger prey such as deer, bear, razorbacks, or other alligators. If the gator has caught something too large to consume in one bite it typically drowns it by violently spinning it in the water. This is commonly called a “death roll”. It will then store it for a couple days to allow decomposition and easier consumption afterward.
Video footage shows trappers wrangling the over 10-foot-long creature, according to WPLG:
Bar patrons told the outlet it was not the first time they had spotted one of the creatures in the area.
“At least 20 years. The big one that I know of — if it’s the same one, you know — he’s been there 20 years,” one man said.
When the incident happened, those at the bar ran over to help the victim and placed a tourniquet on his arm.
Now, he is waiting for doctors to perform another procedure to remove any remaining bacteria that may have been left in his arm following the attack.
The alligator has since been euthanized, an FWC spokesperson told NBC 2.
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