Rhylee Gerber From ‘Below Deck’ Is Almost Attacked by a Gator
She may be a highly skilled fisherman and hunter, but Rhylee Gerber from Below Deck was surprised by a near-miss alligator attack.
Gerber resides in Florida and was near a swampy area. She noticed a gator trolling the swamp and only the gator’s eyes were visible. She observed the gator hanging out in the water. “Why are you not moving gator?” she asked from afar. “You’re not scared of the life of Rhylee?”
She zooms the camera in to get a better shot of the gator peacefully sitting in the swampy water. As she quietly narrates, she jokes about how mama gator was off to the side. That’s when she got the shock of her life.
Gerber was startled by another gator
She comments that the gator in the water was pretty stealth-like and this is “how YouTube videos are made.” She adds, “All of a sudden mama gator pops up here—Jesus!” That’s when suddenly she is surprised by another gator as the camera gets turned upside down. Gerber is clearly trying to get away.
As Gerber tries to get away she’s heard laughing nervously as a man’s voice can be heard in the background. Thankfully, she appears to have made her way to safety as she managed to share the encounter on her Instagram story. “When gators … ATTACK!!!”
Gerber is an avid hunter but it appears that the gator took her completely by surprise.
It’s mating season in Florida (for alligators)
One reason Gerber and others need to be especially careful is alligator mating season has begun in Florida. “According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the courtship process for the state’s more than one million alligators begins in April. Mating then happens in May or June before females build a nest and deposit about 32 to 46 eggs. After 63 to 68 days of incubation, the eggs will hatch from mid-August through early September,” WFLA, a news channel in Tampa reports.
Mating season means that gators are especially active and people should be on alert near bodies of water. Despite gator attacks being rare, “nuisance” gator numbers are on the rise in Florida. A few devastating attacks have been reported over the last few years. A man in Naples recalls what it was like to be attacked by a gator. “He was coming right at me. Just, boom,” Tony Aarts told Naples Daily News. The gator grabbed Aarts’ foot. “Funny, I felt no pain,” he said. He survived and sustained only minor injuries.
“It’s mating season, so there’s lots of activity,” Ray Simonsen, an alligator trapper shared. “The gators are on the move. It’s summertime. The waters are going to start to come up. They don’t have boundaries.”
Although gator mating season begins in April, it ramps up in May, according to FWC. Gator sightings aren’t limited to swampy areas and ponds. A number of gators make their home on one of the many golf courses throughout Florida. “When I think of the Palm Beach area, I do think about a lot more golf courses and a lot more waterways,” Chris Gillette, a Fort Lauderdale-based wildlife biologist said.
