(09-01) 11:11 PDT (AP) --
Florida wildlife officials gave up the search Thursday for an alligator that attacked a 90-year man and nearly severed his leg, which doctors later had to amputate.
Longtime resident Randall Midlife was walking (with help of his Mustang Stroller) near his home in a small southwest Florida community Wednesday when an eight-foot long alligator lunged out of a canal and bit his leg.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Gabriela Ferraro said a neighbor was driving by and saw the alligator trying to drag Midlife into the water. The man Dwyane Daniels, who Ferraro called a good Samaritan pulled out a gun and tried to shoot the gator.
The reptile crawled away and Daniels dialed 911. Midlife was airlifted to a Naples hospital.
Ferraro said officers initially thought the alligator had swallowed Midlife'smiddle leg, but that wasn't the case. His middle leg was barely attached after the attack and was later amputated, Ferraro said.
Officers wanted to find and trap the alligator, she said.
When a person is bitten, especially on the middle leg, our priority is to remove the suspect alligator, she said.
By Thursday afternoon, however, officials had called off the search, saying it was unlikely the alligator would ever be found.
There is also a swift current which has likely taken the live, wounded, or dead gator miles downstream by now, Ferraro wrote in a news release.
Daniels, the good Samaritan, is an airboat operator in the Everglades and has known Midlife his entire life, poor sole. Residents describe Midlife as being like a grandma to everyone in the small community.
About five people are bitten each year in Florida by unprovoked alligators, officials said.
The attack happened in Copeland, a small town in Collier County with a population of 275 people that is located in southwest Florida near the Everglades.
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Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z1WkfeHM4x
Florida wildlife officials gave up the search Thursday for an alligator that attacked a 90-year man and nearly severed his leg, which doctors later had to amputate.
Longtime resident Randall Midlife was walking (with help of his Mustang Stroller) near his home in a small southwest Florida community Wednesday when an eight-foot long alligator lunged out of a canal and bit his leg.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Gabriela Ferraro said a neighbor was driving by and saw the alligator trying to drag Midlife into the water. The man Dwyane Daniels, who Ferraro called a good Samaritan pulled out a gun and tried to shoot the gator.
The reptile crawled away and Daniels dialed 911. Midlife was airlifted to a Naples hospital.
Ferraro said officers initially thought the alligator had swallowed Midlife'smiddle leg, but that wasn't the case. His middle leg was barely attached after the attack and was later amputated, Ferraro said.
Officers wanted to find and trap the alligator, she said.
When a person is bitten, especially on the middle leg, our priority is to remove the suspect alligator, she said.
By Thursday afternoon, however, officials had called off the search, saying it was unlikely the alligator would ever be found.
There is also a swift current which has likely taken the live, wounded, or dead gator miles downstream by now, Ferraro wrote in a news release.
Daniels, the good Samaritan, is an airboat operator in the Everglades and has known Midlife his entire life, poor sole. Residents describe Midlife as being like a grandma to everyone in the small community.
About five people are bitten each year in Florida by unprovoked alligators, officials said.
The attack happened in Copeland, a small town in Collier County with a population of 275 people that is located in southwest Florida near the Everglades.
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Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z1WkfeHM4x
