When it comes to Florida wildlife, not much surprises people anymore – unless it’s cellphone footage of two top predators swimming together.
Gray Vinson took the video on Sunday, March 21, 2021, from a walking bridge at the Indian River Lagoon in Vero Beach. His video shows an alligator and bull shark swimming side-by-side while a manatee hangs out nearby on the side of the river.
“It’s not every day you see a bull shark and a gator swimming together in the Indian river.. I’m not so sure how the manatee made out,” Vinson wrote in a Facebook post.
The Indian River Lagoon is an estuary known for having one of the most bio-diverse habitat in North America with 4,000 plant and animal species. Around this time each year, bull sharks swarm to this particular area for spawning.
When fresh water joins with ocean water, it’s referred to as brackish water. It is here where these two predators can occasionally be seen together
Bull sharks are known for their unpredictable, aggressive nature, and are diadromous, meaning they have the ability to swim between salt water and fresh water with ease.
View this post on Instagram
While alligators are almost exclusively a fresh-water species they can be found anywhere there is water including lakes, ponds, rivers, marshes, swamps, and even man-made canals.
Check out the video below!