Alligator missing upper snout found in Florida park

An alligator with half a snout has been captured after residents in a Florida town reported that it had been terrorizing a local park, authorities said.

Eustacia Kanter was wandering around at Wilson’s Land Park in Sanford when she noticed an alligator that had his upper snout missing, exposing his white tongue.

“At first, my brain couldn’t comprehend that its entire upper jaw was missing,” Kanter told Fox 35. “When I realized, I felt terrible for him.”

His upper jaw was sliced up to his eyeballs for unknown reasons.

Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator Kim Titterington told WESH that the image of the animal “missing the whole part of your face is very shocking.”

“It’s not uncommon to see them with damage to their face, missing a limb, missing a tail, maybe part of their jaw, but this is very extreme,” she told Fox 35.

Titterington speculated the animal suffered the injury could have gotten into an fight with another gator or got caught in a snare trap, causing its snout to rip off.

Titterington worries as the animal gets older it will struggle to feed itself as it won’t be able to catch bigger prey and will be vulnerable to attacks.

“When this animal needs to consume larger prey and subdue its prey, well, that ability is finished at this point,” Titterington told WESH.

The animal was captured on Thursday night, according to the Miami Herald. Trapper Jerry Flynn managed to capture the animal and took it to a care facility.

“He looks good other than his snout,” he told the Herald. “He’s not starving because he’s pretty plump.”