Florida Man Finds Himself Surrounded by Alligators: 'They're Everywhere'

An experienced wildlife handler, Garrett Galvin, found himself surrounded by alligators "again" after mimicking the calls of a baby gator in Florida's Everglades National Park.

Footage of the incident shows at least six pairs of eyes glinting in the darkness before Galvin shines his torch on them to reveal a swarm of "swamp puppies."

"They're literally everywhere," Galvin says in the footage, which he shared to his TikTok page, @fishingarrett. It has so far received 24.5 million views.

There are 1.3 million alligators in Florida, with the reptiles making their home in all 67 counties of the state, alongside more than 21 million people. Gators prefer Florida's swamps and waterways as habitats, but they can be spotted in populated areas.

Galvin is a fifth-generation Floridian who has spent his whole life surrounded by the state's most exotic wildlife.

"I put myself in a situation with alligators all the time, but when I'm in control, everything is good," Galvin told Newsweek. "When you lose that control, things can get sketchy."

Lucky for Galvin, he said he has always managed to keep the upper hand. "I've had plenty of close calls with alligators, but I've never felt out of control," he added. "But, one time when I was in the middle of a pond, I came upon an unexpected alligator nest, and the mother was extra aggressive defending it.

"I was instantly overwhelmed by the mother because I was in the water so I couldn't properly dodge and keep proper distance. I avoided getting hurt, but it was a very close call," Galvin said.

At the beginning of the video, a splashing gator caught him by surprise. But more of the reptiles swarmed over after Galvin used a baby alligator call to grab their attention.

"Alligators are cannibalistic, and they will always take an opportunity to eat a smaller gator if possible, so it's basically like ringing the dinner bell to them," Galvin said. "They are very curious, and they want to see what's going on."

However, Galvin added that this can get dangerous if it triggers a mother gator into thinking her baby is in distress. "That can be very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing because the mother will defend her babies viciously," he said.

In the video, Galvin also finds a highly venomous cottonmouth snake, a scarlet snake, and an enormous tropical orb weaver spider. However, he said that the content on his TikTok channel was a toned-down version of his wildlife escapades. "I keep it very PG [parental guidance] compared to my capabilities," Galvin explained. "A lot of people's reaction is this is dangerous, and of course it is, but I know exactly what I'm doing.

"When it comes wildlife, I want people to see that they are just chilling, and they're not always out to get everybody like often gets portrayed. When you understand the animal, you can see how peaceful they actually are."