We brought you a story the other day about “selfie stations” and why these might be a necessity at parks and wildlife preserves in the future.
Today we’re getting an even clearer picture as to why visitors’ behavior needs to be corralled when visiting these natural sites because an influencer apparently just fed their drone (accidentally, of course) to an alligator down in Florida’s Everglades.
It is important to note that the social media celebrity in question has made the media aware that this did not take place in a national park though it is very emblematic of the kinds of behaviors that would be deterred/unacceptable in that kind of setting.
And as is so often the case with these things now, we have it all on video.
We can thank PetaPixel and Inside Edition for bringing this to the wider world’s attention according to FStoppers (which is where we found this story). Apparently, TikTok content creator Dev H Langer hovered their DJI Spark above an alligator named George who either confused it for a meal or wanted to get rid of something encroaching on his territory. Snatching the tiny drone in his mouth, the device’s battery promptly exploded sending waves of thick white smoke coming out of the alligator’s mouth.
You can check it all out at this link.
No word on the alligator’s condition though many people have speculated that it is, at the very least, suffering from burns where the battery exploded. Several Internet outlets have pointed out that there are laws against harming Florida’s alligators though it is unknown if any of that applies in this case.
It is important to point out that it doesn’t seem as though the TikToker was trying to get the alligator to eat their drone. Very often we cover stories where someone is intentionally attempting a stunt or to evoke some kind of reaction and it backfires. Here, it seems like George the alligator bit off a little bit more than he could chew and things went the way they did.
Don’t forget to check out our other photography news on Light Stalking at this link right here.
