Young alligator appears to smile and wave hello

DELEON SPRINGS, Fla. (Gray News/TMX) – A young alligator in Florida almost appears friendly in a well-timed photo captured earlier this year as the reptile tried to climb toward the photographer.

The photo shared by Melissa Chadwell shows a small alligator appearing to smile and wave as it climbs onto a dock in De Leon Springs, about 20 miles southwest of Daytona Beach.

Chadwell said the photo was snapped in February.

“This was a lucky shot of this little guy trying to climb up on a dock. Too cute,” she wrote alongside the photo in the Facebook group Alligators of Florida.

While injury or death caused by alligators is rare in Florida, there is significant human-alligator conflict.

Nuisance alligators are defined as being over 4 feet long and are considered a threat to people, pets or property.

According to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report on the Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program, or SNAP, issued on Feb. 21, the state has 113 contracted nuisance alligator trappers that respond to 10,000 calls for service annually.

Because healthy alligator populations exist in all available habitats in all of Florida’s 67 counties, nuisance alligators are generally not relocated to the wild, where their introduction can lead to territorial fights and death, according to the FWC.

Nuisance alligators become the trapper’s property to sell for hide or meat or to sell live to a zoo or farm.