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By Brian Dillon
Home & Travel Reporter
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A Florida tour guide was blown away by an amazing moment in nature that she got to witness, when an alligator was spotted with a python in its mouth in the Everglades.
Kelly Alvarez from the Shark Valley Observation Tower captured the moment that stunned tourists in late November. In the clip, the alligator can be seen with the dead, bloated, and partially eaten python in its maw, dragging the massive reptile behind it as it slowly moves through the water. "That is awesome," Avarez can be heard saying in the clip. "Dude, that is gnarly. That is a really, really big python."
Alvarez is a tour guide in the Everglades and told Storyful that the alligator in the video is one of the largest she has ever seen. However, the python in the clip is even larger, leaving tourists shocked and amazed at what they were seeing.
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"The record for longest python found in the Florida Everglades is 19 feet," she told Storyful. "Given that this alligator is minimum 10 feet, though I estimate him to be more around 12 feet, this python being twice his size is now quite possibly the longest Burmese python ever found in Everglades National Park."
Newsweek has contacted Kelly Alvarez for comment via email.
Another person in the video can be heard saying: "You know it's something serious when it's something we [tour guides] haven't seen before."
There are 10 states in the U.S. where alligators are found. Florida has the highest number, with 1.3 million alligators, found in the state's wetlands and rivers in all 67 of its counties. Louisiana has 2 million of the creatures, and in third place lies Texas with between 400,000 and 500,000 alligators.
Lake Okeechobee in Florida has the highest alligator population in the state, followed by Orange Lake, Lake Jesup, and Lake Kissimmee.
The Everglades is where many tourists go to see some of Florida's unique wildlife, such as its abundance of alligators. The national park spans more than 1.5 million acres and was founded in 1947.
The U.S. National Park Service reports that the Everglades gets an average of 1 million visitors per year, proving to be one of Florida's most popular tourist attractions.
Internet users have been sharing their reactions to the clip online.
@ColoradoOhio wrote: "Ok. Impressive. But but what's really amazing is that there's someone out there that still says 'gnarly'."
Sabrina Arnett commented: "That's awesome!"
"Wow … you don't see that every day!" posted @TheReal_DRT.
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