7-Foot Alligator Revved Up For Mating A Bit Too Early Bangs On Florida Family’s Gate For 45 Minutes

A Tampa family was surprised to learn that the constant banging sound coming from outside their home was an alligator relentlessly trying to get into their property. While the mating season for alligators has not officially arrived, experts believe this alligator could have been fooled by the weather getting warmer earlier than usual.

The residents inside a Yellow Clover Road home called police after that banging persisted for 45 minutes, and they hadn’t a clue as to where it was coming from. Police found an alligator determined to get into the property as it roamed around the outside of that gate looking for a way inside.

When the police first arrived on the scene, all seven feet of this huge alligator ducked under the family car, and from there it moved back over to the gate. According to Fox News, it took a few close encounters and a couple of close calls to capture the alligator and wrangle it into the bed of a truck.

Robb Upgrove, who is a trapper from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation agency, had the honor of interrupting the love-sick alligator’s hunt for a conquest. Upgrove said that the mating season for alligators typical starts in May, but the warm weather in their neck of the woods may have triggered an early onset of mating behaviors of some of these creatures.

What the alligator was most likely doing was looking to get into the yard while searching for a body of water or, quite possibly, a date. This alligator is just the start of the mating season nuisance calls the Florida Fish and Wildlife folks expect to get, said Upgrove. When the mating season begins, there will most likely be other alligators roaming into places they shouldn’t be.

The alligator was captured and put in the bed of his truck and transported to a wildlife sanctuary. This is a place made for roaming so he won’t be disturbing the peace by banging on gates to get in. Check out the alligator in a video from Fox News here.

Last year, a 10-foot-long alligator, which locals nicknamed “Snaggletooth,” was caught on camera strolling along a road in Florida looking for a mate. This was in May of 2017, reports the Daily Mail.

Snaggletooth became an internet star after he was seen roaming for a mate with locals leaving him plenty of room when they happened upon him in the street. His mating ritual last year was to travel between remote gator ponds, and they say that “this bull gator is likely the father of most alligators nearby.”

Snaggletooth was captured on video approaching a female gator who welcomed him, and he could be heard making a gentle growling sound as he approached her.

According to the Daily Mail, “It is believed that these sounds are part of the alligator’s unique courtship, something that ties them together for this season.”