According to Florida state wildlife officials, an alligator mauled and killed an 85-year-old woman on February 20 in St. Lucie.

After witnesses called 911, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) responded.

According to witnesses, an alligator sneakily slithered in the pond and upon landing on the grass, it seized the woman’s dog while she was walking it.

The woman attempted to rescue the dog away from the alligator but was overwhelmed and killed by the creature. The dog escaped the attack.

A nuisance alligator trapper was dispatched to the scene around two hours after the original 911 call and successfully captured the alligator involved in the incident.

The alligator hunter, Robert Lilly, stated that capturing the alligator was difficult. The reptile was submerged and did not come to the surface. The alligator weighed between 600 and 700 pounds and measured between 10 and 11 feet long.

In another incident, an 88-year-old woman was killed in an alleged alligator attack in South Carolina in August 2022 while gardening near a pond in the Sun City Hilton Head area.

Another elderly woman in Florida died in July 2022 after being attacked by two alligators after slipping into a pond, according to investigators.

An FWC representative said alligators are more active throughout the summer and spring seasons because their metabolism speeds up as temperatures rise.