A Southeast Texas native recently visited a local beach and filmed an alligator enjoying a snack by the sea.
Hunter Ham was driving past Sea Rim State Park near Sabine Pass on March 23 with his wife and three children when he spotted the reptile.
“We were driving out, about 150 yards from where we played on the beach when we saw it,” Ham told TMX, reported Fox News. “You could tell, this was ‘his beach’ and he was chilling without a care in the world.”
The video Ham captured shows the gator lounging by the waves, chomping on what Ham identified as a bull red fish.
The gator’s jaw was unhinged, as shown in the video, as it devoured the species of fish that has been recorded weighing up to 94 pounds — although the current Texas record is 59.5 pounds, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD).
Ham suspects that the reptile likely walked over from a nearby source of fresh water “to finish his meal and bathe in the sun.” Bull red fish can inhabit both salt and fresh water, so it is difficult to say where the alligator caught his lunch.
“[TPWD] explained that gators will sometimes come into the saltwater, briefly, to rid themselves of parasites,” Ham explained, per Fox.
Ham, who is a frequent visitor of the beach not far from the border of Louisiana and Texas, said it is not uncommon to spot a gator on the beach.
“There have always been gators around the area and the beach. It’s just rare that we got it on film this day,” Ham said, per Fox. “He was just catching some rays and probably going to wash off the parasites. Seemed like a chill gator when given space.”
Texans should keep their eyes peeled for more gator sightings, as the reptiles are in breeding and nesting season.
“Alligators in Texas are mostly inactive from mid-October until early March when they brumate. Alligators emerge from brumation in March,” says TPWD on its website. “March 1 through May 30 is the peak time for breeding and nesting.”
The Sabine Pass gator is not the only one to make recent headlines.
In January, a gator was found wholly submerged under frozen water in Beaumont, Texas, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The reptile was reportedly hibernating, with just its nose barely jutting out of the ice.
In September of 2023, another Texas alligator gained coverage after the 14-foot creature swam up to a group of Girl Scouts swimming in Lake Raven amid their troop’s camping trip in Huntsville State Park.
Luckily, the girls were able to escape, and nobody was injured.
