Chad Blue Heron vs. Virgin Alligator

Recently a Facebook video revealed a disconcerting fact: "A bird can eat an alligator! If it is savage enough," at least according to Shellie Gilliam who captured this Great Blue Heron eating a juvenile alligator in Florida. She wrote: "I spotted it just after it had captured the alligator a few hundred yards away and then the heron flew off with the alligator in his jaws to this spot where he consumed it and I shot the video and took photos. " Amazing. (pic above from Audubon; video from facebook)

Great Blue Herons are fairly badass as far as herons go. It is the biggest heron in North America, measuring from 38 to 59 inches and weighing from 74-88 pounds fully grown with a wingspan of up to 79 inches. They are known to be quite predatory, taking down frogs, large insects, shrimp, crabs, small birds, chipmunks, squirrels, mice, snakes, turtles, baby rabbits and just about anything else that it can eat. And of course alligators. 

By contrast, juvenile alligators look like a very dry scaly housepet. They are usually born being 1/8 pound and 9 1/2 inches long at birth, growing 8-10 ten inches a year. As adorable as they are when they are young like if that's your thing, they aren't pets. They can be up to 12 feet with up to 80 teeth at a time.  While they are unlikely to eat humans, they will attack them, and making friends with them might land you in the hospital. By the way, crocodiles, their sort of distant cousin, have been known to eat a lot of people, like 1000 a year so you know. Crocodiles are even less suitable as pets and Crocodile Dundee was truly a man among men. So if you decide to visit Everglades State park which is the only place with both crocodiles and alligators, just stay in your boat because really, you don't have time to figure out if that alligator/crocodile is going to chew on you or eat you.