Florida alligator assault kills girl swimming in river with associates

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Two alligator-related incidents occurred in Florida on Sunday, June 28, with one resulting in the demise of a lady who was swimming with associates.

A girl swimming within the Econlockhatchee River died after being bitten by an alligator on Sunday, June 28, close to the Barr Street Trailhead in Oviedo, northeast of Orlando.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission stated the lady was swimming with associates within the river round 1:30 p.m. when she was bitten and sustained critical accidents. She was taken to a hospital the place she later died from her accidents.

A nuisance alligator trapper was known as to the scene and the doorway to the trailhead was closed. The scene wasn’t cleared till 7:30 p.m. FWC stated the investigation continues to be lively and trapping efforts are ongoing.

Women killed by alligator: How to stay safe

The assault that led to the lady’s demise was the second alligator-related incident on Sunday. Earlier within the day a boy fishing from the shore at Nelson’s Fish Camp in Marion County was bitten on the hand by a greater than 8-foot alligator. WESH reported that the alligator was killed after the incident.

The two assaults Sunday comply with one on June 21 where a snorkeler was bitten by an alligator within the Rainbow River close to Dunnellon in Marion County. FWC stated within the incident with the snorkeler that the alligator was discovered by a contracted alligator trapper and killed.

In Florida, 32 folks have been killed by alligators in information relationship again to 1948, in accordance with FWC. Two of these occurred final yr together with a 61-year-old girl killed whereas canoeing together with her husband in Polk County. The second individual killed final yr was a 73-year-old girl discovered lifeless at a residential pond in Palm Harbor in Pinellas County.

Four of the deaths have been of kids beneath 5 years previous, together with the June 14, 2016 demise of Lane Graves, 2, who was killed whereas taking part in alongside the shoreline of Seven Seas Lagoon in Orange County.

There have additionally been 346 alligator assaults since 1948 that resulted in main accidents with 153 leading to minor accidents.

How are you able to keep away from being attacked by an alligator in Florida?

FWC recommends swimming in designated areas solely and through daytime. Alligators are most lively between nightfall and daybreak and through the heat summer time months.

“It’s always safest to assume that there are alligators in any body of fresh or brackish water in Florida,” FWC says. “Avoid swimming in areas with dense vegetation, as alligators may hide within vegetation in and around the water.”

A 2025 University of Florida research discovered that dangerous behaviors, from benignly strolling a canine alongside a canal to knowingly swimming in alligator-infested water, are accountable for a lot of the undesirable, and generally lethal, interactions between folks and alligators.

Researchers stated they did not wish to downplay alligator deaths, such because the one which occurred on Sunday, however had been making an attempt to vary the notion that alligators are wantonly attacking people.

No-risk behaviors are bites that occurred when the individual would not usually be in an alligator’s approach and when the individual was not doing something perilous. They embody strolling to a fishing gap, swimming in designated swim areas, gardening, sitting on a entrance porch and in search of a misplaced canine.

High-risk behaviors embody making an attempt to deliberately work together with an alligator, recognizing an alligator within the water and going swimming anyway, falling out of a ship onto an alligator or any chew that occurred whereas the individual was drunk or excessive on medicine.

In between excessive danger and low danger had been behaviors equivalent to strolling canines close to the water’s edge, checking crab pots, feeding fish, engaged on a ship, diving for golf balls, mendacity together with your legs within the water or making an attempt to evade regulation officers by leaping within the water.

 Kimberly Miller is a journalist for the USA TODAY NETWORK FLORIDA. She covers climate, the surroundings and critters because the Embracing Florida reporter. If you’ve information ideas, please ship them to kmiller@pbpost.com. You can get all of Florida’s finest content material immediately in your inbox every weekday by signing up for the free e-newsletter, Florida TODAY, at palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.