Alligator with no tail spotted waddling across Louisiana highway: Seems to be surviving

This gator’s all snap and no slap.An alligator with no tail was spotted waddling across a Louisiana highway earlier this month — with the maimed beast leaving flabbergasted drivers struggling to comprehend what they were witnessing.“I couldn’t tell at first if he was an alligator or a big dog or what,” Ashlyn Bartholomew, who saw the runty reptile crossing Highway 23 in Plaquemines Parish on May 19.Bartholomew had been driving her kids home from baseball practice when she came across the creepy crawler and slammed on her brakes — when the gator dropped placidly down the pavement and gave her a moment to whip out her phone to start filming.“I didn’t know what that was,” Bartholomew was heard saying in the video, while her boyfriend in the passenger seat was heard exclaiming in disbelief beside her.The creature’s tail was completely lopped off all the way to the base of its torso, leaving nothing but an apparently fully-healed nub behind.“He laid down.He was just minding his own business,” she told NOLA.com, explaining that the gator soon got back to its feet and carried on across the road.“He just took his little time and waddled into the canal,” she said.

“This was the first time I ever saw an alligator without a tail.”Exactly what led to the gator’s condition is unclear, but zoologists told NOLA.com it was likely the result of a rumble with another alligator — explaining that larger beasts have the bite force to take a tail clean off.“I’ve seen an adult alligator missing 75 percent of its tail before,” Audubon Zoo’ reptile expert Robert Mendyk said, adding that battles for territory are common among gators.Another culprit could be a boat propeller, Mendyk said, while explaining that alligators are particularly adept at recovering from wounds.“The wound walls itself off and heals,” he explained.“They have really phenomenal healing and regenerative abilities.”But without a tail the animal likely lost its ability ...