Nine-foot-long alligator in Florida has no jaw, see photo

A nine-foot-long alligator residing in the murky water of Florida‘s Everglades is missing a large chunk of its upper jaw, according to photos shared by a social media user.

The gator’s bottom jaw and teeth can be seen peeking above the water’s surface in the images, but it was missing the whole top part of its jaw.

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Stacey Lynette posted pictures of the gator on Facebook and she penned in the post –

“I saw this gator far away and he looked weird to me, I grabbed my camera and sure as sh*t, the whole end of his top jaw is missing. The photo quality is crap because he was far away. By the looks of him, he’s doing alright though.”

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The only plausible explanation is that the gator got into a fight with another alligator or an alligator hunter.

During the mating season, alligators frequently combat mating rights and territorial disputes.

The gators can severely harm each other, resulting in the loss of limbs and eyes.

As a result, it’s probable that this alligator lost its jaw during one of these fights.

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According to the media outlet, because hunting large reptiles is legal in Florida, it is possible that the gator was shot by someone attempting to poach it.

The huge reptiles are surprisingly good at self-healing, and they are one of the few land vertebrate species that can regenerate appendages.

However, in this case, the gator has not been able to regrow his entire jaw, but the species’ enhanced healing abilities certainly helped him not bleed to death in the aftereffects of whatever incident caused him to lose part of his face.

There are over a million alligators in Florida, which can be found in all 67 counties. They can grow to be about 15 feet tall and weigh more than 544 kg, as per Newsweek.