JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Sometimes, alligators just wanna have fun.
An Action News Jax executive producer captured this video last weekend of just that.
A neighbor of hers had placed their toy boat in a retention pond where the gator likes to frequent.
When the neighbor started up the boat, the gator started to swim after the boat!
Either the gator was enjoying playing a game of chase, or the gator was trying to figure out if the boat was in fact food.
A 2015 study from University of Tennessee at Knoxville called seems to indicate that gators do indeed enjoy playing at times, stating “Observed cases of social play include baby alligators riding on their older friends’ backs, baby caimans playfully ‘courting’ each other and a male crocodile giving his lifetime mate rides on his back.”