A man came close to being lunch for an alligator this week after he jumped into the alligator and crocodile compound at the Hamat Gader Hot Springs, located south of Tiberias, to settle a bet that the reptiles were not for real.
Site manager Ronni Lothan said the visitor had taken a branch and started beating the tail of a 12-foot-long alligator lying in the grass.
The reptile suddenly turned its head and snapped at the intruder, who jumped back and climbed over a fence, with all body parts intact.
Lothan said the fact that it was winter, when the reptiles’ metabolism drops and slows their reactions, probably prevented a more gruesome outcome.
“Had this happened in the summer, when the alligators and crocodiles in the park are alert and react with lightning speed, he wouldn’t have stood a chance,” Lothan was quoted as saying in the Jerusalem Post.
The manager said there were more than 200 alligators and crocodiles lying motionless in the compound at the time.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
