PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – A Ponte Vedra Beach man shared his experience of what it was like to wake up to an alligator swimming in his pool over the weekend.
There’s something special about waking up on the weekend to sunshine and your first cup of coffee. But Sunday was a little different for Edward McClamma.
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“I look out the window and see this shadow in the pool, and I said, ‘Is that from the palm tree shadow?’ and I saw it move, and I said, ‘That’s not a palm tree shadow,’” McClamma said.
It definitely wasn’t a shadow. It was a 6-foot male alligator swimming in their pool — floating, twisting and turning.
“I didn’t have a thought. I had chills running up my spine,” McClamma said.
Then he called on his daughter Molly McClamma.
“He said, ‘You’re not going to believe this, come check out what’s in the pool,” said Molly McClamma.
Molly wasn’t sure what she would see.
“I look in my pool and I look ‘Oh what in the world!’” said Molly in surprise and disbelief.
After the shock of the visiting alligator, McClamma called Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation (FWC), and he admitted he was a little happy.
“I was happy to say ‘Go Gator!’” said McClamma.
Within 45 minutes, a gator trapper with FWC arrived.
Once they got the gator out of the pool and under control, there was time for a quick lesson about the gator and some selfies.
“Out of nowhere, he was like ‘Hey, you want to hold the gator?’ I was like, ‘You know what? Sure.’ So, I picked it up and it was really heavy,” said Molly McClamma.
The gator trapper told McClamma the gator probably didn’t have to travel far because it likely came from a lagoon across the street and walked onto their property.
“I’ve been here 35 years, and that’s the first time I’ve seen a gator in my pool,” Edward McClamma said.
The gator was taken to a refuge.
There have been other encounters with gators lately throughout the state of Florida, such as the alligator attack in Polk County.
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Jim Darlington, curator with Reptiles at Alligator Farm and Zoological Park, said mating season is ending. However, this might be a dangerous time around female gators protecting their eggs.
“Nesting season is when females have deposited eggs in a mound that they build, and they guard that mound and they even guard the babies even up to a couple of years after they hatch so that’s somebody or a someplace that you don’t want to mess with or be in,” said Darlington.
Darlington said there are ways to identify female gators.
“You hear a lot of hissing, and if somebody approaches a live alligator on a trail or whatever, if that animal is not leaving because usually alligators in the water are afraid of people, if it’s not leaving, you need to do everything you can to avoid it,” Darlington said.
