Alligator gars are the largest type of gars, with some growing to weigh up to 350 pounds! They have rows of sharp teeth and typically feast on different types of fish like carp and shad. They’re opportunistic, however, and won’t miss a chance to snack on other species, like birds and turtles.
This video opens with a quiet and peaceful scene of a man fishing from his kayak. The camera is strapped to his head, which gives you his point of view. His legs can be seen resting on the front of the kayak as he looks out onto the water ahead of him where a white duck and black duck can be seen swimming toward him.
The camera pans over as they cross in front of him and the man jokingly says, “If I only had a shotgun.” The two ducks acknowledge him as he holds out his hand and he suddenly becomes curious. “Are ya’ll somebody’s pets or something?”
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The ducks begin quacking and approaching him even closer and he tells them, “No, I ain’t got no food … scram!”
They turn away from him, but he reaches out his hand again, clicking his tongue to get their attention. They turn without hesitation again toward him, seemingly as intrigued as he is. As they turn and paddle toward his back left, the man says “Wow, I’ve never seen ducks do that before.”
It’s as if they’ve been exposed to humans before since they are quite comfortable in close proximity to him.
Still surprised by the encounter, he says “That’s crazy.” The video then cuts to another moment. The man has apparently stayed in the same position, and the ducks are still paddling about close to the edge of the water.
You can barely make out the movement of fish beneath the murky green water as he looks around his kayak. He says “Oh, man,” as he spots something moving swiftly underwater toward the ducks.
“There goes an alligator gar,” he says.
The video cuts to another clip. Now, the ducks are a little closer to him. They’re calmly paddling around him, staying close together. He reaches out his hand again and the ducks turn around. Suddenly, the alligator gar appears again.
The man notices it just before it bites at the white bird’s legs, startling it and sending it scurrying away with the black duck close behind.
“I think that gar just nipped him,” he says as he keeps his attention on the two ducks. He remains there for a while and the video cuts again to the moment when he decides to leave the ducks alone and get back to fishing.
Luckily for the ducks, they survived this alligator gar encounter. However, based on what the fisherman says at the close of the video, the gar may not get so lucky if he happens to spot it again.
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