A woman canoeing at Florida’s Lake Kissimmee State Park with her husband on Tuesday was killed by an alligator after it overturned their boat.
The two were in a 14-foot canoe in about 2.5 feet of water at the mouth of where a local creek meets the lake. The canoe passed over an alligator, which proceeded to thrash about and flip the boat, sending both canoers into the water.
The victim, a 61-year-old Davenport, Florida, woman, had been sitting in the front of the boat and ended up on top of the alligator, Evan Laskowski of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said at a news conference. The alligator bit her as her husband tried and failed to intervene.
Her body was later recovered from the lake by an FWC vessel, and two alligators, one 11 feet 4 inches in length and another 10 to 11 feet long, have been removed from the lake by contracted alligator trappers.
Alligators are in a heightened state of activity right now. The reptiles started their annual courtship last month, and mating season lasts from May into June, FWC says on its website.
