VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A kayaker caught a strange sight on camera Tuesday along the St. Johns River in Central Florida.
DeBary resident Tyler Futrell told News 6 he was kayaking that morning between the High Banks marina and the mouth of the Wekiva River. That’s when he noticed the bear trying to swim across.
According to Futrell, he thought it was a pig at first.
“I grew up around here, so I’m pretty used to seeing hogs and whatever,” Futrell said. “But a bear is a pretty rare sight, so it didn’t even cross my mind.”
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Futrell kept his distance, staying around 80-100 feet away and pulling out his phone.
“I didn’t want whatever this was, for me to just come up and bump into it because that’s going to turn a great morning into a really bad one,” he said.
While recording from afar, Futrell noticed that an alligator was approaching the bear.
“Alligator coming to say, ‘Hi,’” Futrell said in the video.
The alligator then lunged at the bear — prompting Futrell to say, “Oh, (expletive).”
However, the bear pushed through the alligator, continuing on toward the other side.
Despite an attack from another alligator — which the bear again barrels through — the bruin reached the shoreline and wandered off, the video shows.
“It was just kind of annoyed and ready to get out of the water,” Futrell explained.
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