9-Foot Alligator Bites Mississippi Man 'In Defense' Without Warning, Captured

A man in Mississippi was hospitalized after he was bitten by an alligator. The incident took place Wednesday (June 10).

Speaking to local daily Clarion-Ledger, Christian Roberts said he was working on the powerlines when he started walking in the woods to relieve himself. He started walking on a faint path in the grass and when the path ended, he decided to go elsewhere as he wasn’t sure about going into the tall grass area.

"I was thinking of finding another spot, but it was too late. In that split-second of thinking that, I was struck on the back of the leg. At first I thought it was a wild hog, but when I looked down I was like, 'Oh my gosh, it's something else,’” he recalled. He soon realized that he was bitten by an alligator.

"I looked down because of the pain in my leg. I could see his tail looped in front of me. Before I was struck I did not get a warning growl or anything. I had no warning. I was in pure shock, amazement and disbelief,” Roberts said, adding that he punched the gator twice following which the reptile let go of his leg.

"I kind of hobbled away a couple of feet to see where it was and what it was; just to make sure it was an alligator. Then I went back to my crew,” Roberts said. He was rushed to a local hospital where he was told that he had 11 puncture wounds on the back of his leg and another wound on his right ankle. The doctors cleaned his wounds and gave him a tetanus shot and antibiotics.

Meanwhile, the nine-and-a-half-foot male alligator was captured and dispatched by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks personnel.

Speaking about the incident, Ricky Flynt, alligator program coordinator for MDWFP, told the newspaper that the animal's reaction was an example of its defensive instincts.

"In a typical alligator defense, when you step near that alligator his defensive instinct is to snap at whatever is near. It would be exactly like someone walking through woods or their yard or wherever and stepping on or near a venomous snake and it strikes. It acted instinctively by biting at whatever it was,” he said.