Incredible Photo Shows Blue Heron Flying With Baby Alligator In Mouth As Mom Gator Looks On

A wildlife photographer in Florida captured a spectacular and rare photo of a great blue heron flying off with a baby alligator in its mouth while the mother alligator was seemingly trying to chase them.

Photographer Ted Roberts said in a Facebook post that he captured the image at the Orlando Wetlands Park Sunday.

"While waiting between tours, we heard a commotion and saw a great blue heron jump out onto the road with a baby alligator in its mouth followed closely by the angry mother alligator futilely giving chase," the photographer wrote.

He said that the photo was one of a series of pictures he was able to take before the heron left as the mother alligator approached it.

Roberts is a volunteer at Orlando Wetlands Park, he said.

Baby alligators can be eaten by different kinds of predators, including wading birds, raccoons, otters and fish, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.

In 2020, a Florida wildlife photographer captured a bird eating an alligator and swallowing it whole at a lake northwest of Orlando, WMBF reported.

According to photographer Shellie Gilliam, she was on the north shore of Lake Apopka, at a famous birdwatching site on Dec. 5, 2020. A big great blue heron caught a small alligator and flew with it to the lakeside location, where Gilliam captured the picture.

"Yes, A bird can eat an alligator! If it's savage enough!" Gilliam wrote on Facebook at the time.

She shared that it took half an hour for the heron to consume the alligator gator.

"Just wow!" Gilliam wrote. "Nature continues to me amaze me every day."

According to the Audubon Society, the great blue herons are one of the most common large waterbirds in the Americas. They were previously hunted because of their size.

Their diet is "highly variable and adaptable" and includes insects, rodents, birds and fish. This kind of bird is said to often hunt for prey by just standing still along shorelines, waiting for fish to swim by and then finally striking "with the rapid thrust of a bill," the Audubon Society said.

The great blue heron is known to chase and eat reptiles, both small and large, including frogs, salamanders, turtles and snakes.