This Christmas season, people have been sharing pictures of alligators with their eyes glowing at night.
They are calling the unusual phenomenon the true Florida Christmas lights, and Gatorland agrees.
Gator Expert Brandon Fisher told News 6, “All crocodilians — gators, crocodiles, cayman, which are found down in South America — their eyes can glow at nighttime when a light reflects on them.”
He said the color is reddish-orange and is caused by a part of the eye called the tapetum lucidem.
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“I wouldn’t necessarily call it night vision, but it’s pretty darn close to it,” Fisher said.
The function is especially helpful since alligators can be night owls.
“Gators typically do most of their activity from dusk ‘til dawn. So that’s when they do their feeding, and that’s when they do most of their breeding and moving around... so they have to have that capability of seeing at those low-level lights and at nighttime,” Fisher explained.
As for the social media pictures where the gator’s eyes are shining bright yellow, Fisher said, “Definitely Photoshopped.”
But if you want to see it for yourself, he said you can come out to Gatorland’s Night Shine event.
For $24.99 per person, a guide will take you out to the dock at the breeding marsh with a flashlight and let you see the reddish-orange eyes looking back at you from the water.
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