This Sunday in Florida a 13-year-old girl was attacked by an alligator leaving injuries, just as a man suffered serious injuries when bitten by another, and a state where this same month an 80-year-old woman who fell into a lagoon she died when attacked by 2 of those reptiles.
This Monday reported that the latest attack was recorded this weekend in Hardee County, in central Florida, by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). The incident occurred in the West Florida town of Zolfo Springs near a boat ramp in the Gardner area.
As reported by The Tampa Herald, the teenager was hospitalized for her injuries but her life is not in danger and she remains in a stable condition. A team specialized in hunting these reptiles was sent to the scene of the incident while the investigation continues.
The man, identified as 43-year-old Eric Merda, last Wednesday in Manatee County on the west coast of Florida joins this weekend’s attack, in which he was seriously injured by an alligator in a camping area, according to data by The Tampa Herald.
On Florida’s southwest coast, an 80-year-old woman from Englewood had died a week earlier after falling into a pond and being bitten by two alligators. The two animals responsible for Rose Wiegand’s death were later euthanized by FWC officials. According to a witness, the woman accidentally fell into a pond on the golf course, near her home.
Since 1948, 20 deaths have been documented in Florida
The woman became the third death from alligator attacks this year in the United States after another death in Florida of a man on May 31 and another man near a lagoon in South Carolina on June 24.
The state of Florida has a population of alligators that is currently estimated at 1.3 million specimens of all sizes and distributed throughout the 67 counties of this territory in the southeastern United States.
The state of Florida is the refuge of a large community of alligators, which causes multiple encounters of these reptiles with humans near their homes, golf courses or highways. Fatal attacks are, however, rare in Florida.
According to data provided, since 1948 more than 20 cases have been documented of death of people due to attacks by these reptiles in Florida. Published by The Tampa Herald, news and information agency.
