Raccoon rides alligator

June 16, 2015 • 8:17 am

UPDATE: A reader in the comments (#2) gives a reference suggesting that this photo may be a fake. Stay tuned.

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If this photo hasn’t gone viral, it will. It shows a raccoon (Procyon lotor) riding an alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) in Florida. WPTV in West Palm Beach gives details:

A Palatka man’s son was able to quickly take an amazing photo of a raccoon riding on top of an alligator in the Ocala National Forest Saturday morning.

Richard Jones told WFTV in Orlando that he and his family were walking along the Oklawaha River watching alligators when his son walked through palm fronds to get a good picture.

Jones told WFTV that his son must have startled the raccoon, which he said then stumbled toward the water and hopped on top of the gator that was near the water’s edge.

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Since we’re all concerned about the fate of the raccoon, I can report that he hopped off without being nommed.

h/t: Hempenstein

16 thoughts on “Raccoon rides alligator”

  3. “The most obvious thing is that when a gator swims in the water only its eyes and nostrils are ever above the water. The back is usually completely submerged.”

    That’s true. It’s a funny picture, but I’m dubious. In my experience, that alligator would submerge too quickly for the raccoon to actually stand on it’s back.

    1. Hmmm. The picture certainly could be a fake but the “doesn’t swim like a gator” argument isn’t very persuasive to me. Perhaps the gator is lying on a submerged log (or roots of the cypress tree that is right next to it), as they very often do, and had just begun to move.

      If the photo was pieced together with a a pic of a gator out of water, a pic of a raccoon plus a third pic of the swamp, that wouldn’t be too smart of the photoshopper. She/he should have used just two pics, one of a gator in the water and one of a raccoon.

  4. I think a forensic analysis of the photograph is in order. I want to believe it is an authentic image of what the photographer observed but PhotoShop makes it all too easy to produce such an image from two discrete ones.

    1. I want it to be real, too – his pose seems so absolutely typical – but keep looking at the lighting now. The scene seems to be lit from ~11:00 in front of the camera, but the ‘coon seems lit more from 2:00 or so. And I’d like to see some shadow.

  5. Pretty sure there was something about this in the bible – Tho I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I will believe anything…

      1. I think the point is that animals do surprising stuff. Is there a problem? (For the purposes of this website foxes are honorary cats, and photos of deceased moggies could cause distress, but I’m not sure anything follows.)

  7. I seem to remember a fable involving something riding on another’s back.

    It didn’t end well. Something about it being it’s nature to gobble up the passenger, despite convincing arguments to the contrary before the attempt at crossing.

    Or was it the passenger (a snake or wasp) who kills the creature providing the ride?

  8. Chill Randy my friend…… it’s bit of both. Terrapins (known as turtles in other parts of the world) are not native to the UK – to see one living in a canal and riding a dead fox is a testament to their resilience and resourcefulness. I also find it “funny”, in an ironic sense – life taking advantage of death. My sense of humour is obviously different to yours 🙂

    1. Oooops sorry! this was meant to reply to Randy’s comment on my post above.

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