Kim Joiner told CBS affiliate WKMG that she took the viral video of the huge gator at the Circle B Bar Reserve at the Polk Nature Discovery Center. She estimated the gator to be at least 12 feet long.
Joiner posted video of the encounter to Facebook , and it has since been shared more than 25,000 times.
This guy ain’t a puppy. A woman took this video from a nature center in Lakeland. I won’t be visiting said nature center. (h/t @10NewsWTSP ) pic.twitter.com/FfKPMcsgh6
Kristi Buckley was also there, taking photos just feet from the gator.
“I probably should’ve been a little more afraid than I was,” she told CBS affiliate WTSP . “I was just so inspired by seeing this amazing creature come across the path who’d obviously been there for decades.”
Buckley told WTSP that the gator has a nickname among regulars at the reserve, “Mr. Humpback.” She and her husband however are calling it “Godzilla.”
