Woman Survives Close Encounter with Aggressive Alligator

A woman survived a brush with an aggressive alligator that attacked and sank her inflatable boat in an isolated part of the Florida Everglades.

The woman's inflatable raft was attacked by a hostile gator in the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and she was rescued by a team of firefighters, reports the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.

Fire Rescue officials reported that they had to send an airboat to rescue the woman as she was located in a remote part of the 150,000 acre refuge west of Boynton Beach. Fortunately, the woman survived the close encounter with the aggressive gator uninjured but she was terribly shaken with the incident.

Due to privacy concerns, the woman's identify remains confidential. The hostile gator pierced its sharp teeth onto the woman's inflatable raft that caused it to sink. The lucky victim was safely transported back to dry land by the firefighters.

Data according to the National Park Service states that the Everglades National Park is nearly 1.5 million acres in size and provides habitat to innumerable rare and endangered species such as the Florida panther, Manatee and American crocodile. Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is the northernmost part of the Everglades and is home the critically endangered American alligator. Nearly 257 different bird species use the Refuge's diverse wetland habitat.

The area where the woman faced an unexpected encounter with the violent gator is basically a popular destination for hikers and kayakers. Apart from the American alligator, the place is home to the endangered Everglade snail kite, a medium-sized hawk that is also listed as an endangered species, reports Science Recorder.  

There has been an increase in the number of alligator attacks in the United States since 1970, and most of them have occurred in Florida. The number of attacks in Florida increased from an annual average of five between 1948 and 1986  to 14 since 1986 -2005, reports the Washington Post.