Alligator Eats Fawn - April 28, 2018

Karen and I witnessed a very natural event (yet we felt much sadness) on Saturday evening (April 28) at a pond in The Great Outdoors.  If you are uncomfortable reading about grisly events, do NOT continue reading. 

Doe that we suspect was the fawn's mother

We noticed a doe walking back and forth behind Karen's home and stepped outside to see a large (10 feet OAL?) alligator in the water facing shore with something in its teeth. 

Fawn's rump is to your left of the mouth,

fawn's head is to your right. 

Using binoculars to avoid approaching the gator too closely, we discovered a small fawn was in the large, toothy mouth.  From the first moment we saw the giant lizard, the fawn never moved on its own and we assumed it was already dead.  As we watched, so did the doe (we assumed it was the fawn's mother) and the huge reptile shook the fawn which split the small body in three parts.  The lower half was flung ashore, the entrails spilled into the water and the upper half remained held tightly by the gator.

This is after swallowing the fawn's upper half and has retrieved the lower half

Eating the lower half

The scaly monster proceeded to chew and chomp its way through the upper half, making crunching noises as the bones were broken to fit down the alligator's gullet.  The animal raised its tail as the fawn's upper body was swallowed.  The doe looked at us as if to ask us for help.  We felt so sad for the doe, but there was nothing to be done.  Of course, the gator deserved the right to fight for a meal.






Over the next half hour the cold-blooded creature retrieved the lower body from where it landed on shore, crunched and consumed it, then fished the entrails from the water and gulped them down.  This entire time the doe continued to wander across the nearby yards and shift its eyes repeatedly from us to the top of the food chain and back to us. 
It was a dramatic event that we were both saddened yet thankful to observe and experience.