Watch: 12-foot alligator chomps down on Florida photographer’s camera

OCHOPEE, Fla. — This was a little too close for comfort.

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A Florida photographer nearly lost his GoPro camera after a 12-foot alligator decided to take a bite out of it, WFLA-TV reported.

Bobby Wummer was taking photographs this week in the Big Cypress National Preserve in southwest Florida near the Everglades from an elevated position, the television station reported. In a Facebook post, Wummer, who said he enjoys photographing wildlife, used a 12-foot extension pole to mount the GoPro in order to get a close-up shot of the gator.

“I was well above him,” Wummer wrote.

But Wummer did not expect the alligator to lunge at the camera.

“As you can see I did get an EXTREME close up inside the gator’s mouth,” Wummer wrote on Facebook. “This was not done intentionally, I didn’t think that he would actually lunge up and bite down on the cam.

“I was lucky and didn’t play tug of war, which would have probably been the end of (the) camera.”

The alligator apparently did not like the taste of the camera. The reptile, realizing the camera was not food, released the camera.

Wummer said the camera suffered only minor damage.

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