Tarrant County sheriff deputies wrangle alligator in viral video

Tarrant County sheriff’s deputies were seen relocating an alligator from a road to a waterway in a video posted to social media Wednesday.
Sheriff’s office spokesperson Robbie Hoy said via email that the gator was spotted Sunday in the 9900 block of Boat Club Road, near Eagle Mountain Lake. A resident called authorities when Mr. Gator, as the reptile is identified in the video caption, got too close to homes.
The video, which is set to pop singer Sabrina Carpenter’s song “Taste,” shows three deputies and a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officer wrangling the rambunctious reptile with a catch pole. With the gator’s neck seized, the animal thrashes and snaps its jaws at the deputies as they lead it off the road.
Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond.
Or with:
By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
They use a second catch pole to shut the gator’s jaws. With Mr. Gator safely restrained, the deputies and the parks officer carry it off the roadway. Deputies drag the reptile toward a waterway before they cut off the restraints and send Mr. Gator on his way.
Hoy said the alligator was released into a waterway that feeds into the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge, located south of the lake.
Alligators have been spotted in the Nature Center, Eagle Mountain Lake, Trinity River and even in Coppell in recent years. While half a million gators live in Texas, most are concentrated in the eastern and southern parts of the state. However, they do occasionally make their way into North Texas and are native to the area.
The video posted to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office social media pages noted that no deputies or alligators were injured in the incident.