An unlikely quintet of sharks and a lone alligator were spotted together in the waters off South Carolina, spooking would-be swimmers at a popular vacation destination.
The unusual sight was on display near a dock in Hilton Head as the massive sharks swam about without a care in the world while a lounging gator stayed off to the side in the shade, according to videos captured by flabbergasted vacationers.
A small group of children watched on eagerly, sitting between the slats on the dock’s fence in hopes of watching a fight for the ages.
Instead, the pod of sharks hardly paid any mind to the curious alligator.
“I’ve been visiting Hilton Head since I was 12 years old, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Gina Athans, who recorded one of the viral videos, told The Island Packet.
Sharks and alligators typically live in different bodies of water. Sharks are almost exclusively found in salt water, usually deep in the ocean, whereas alligators flit from land to freshwater swamps.
Lemon sharks, which are common in South Carolina, prefer warmer bodies of water, but rarely drift so far into freshwater systems, according to the Florida Museum.
That doesn’t stop either species from having a penchant for the Skull Creek Dockside’s brackish water — a combination of salt and freshwater.
The two titans usually coexist if they’re of similar size, Morgan Hart, the Alligator Project Leader for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, told the outlet. If one spots a tyke that can serve as an easy prey, though, all bets are off.
The predator powwow left social media users wildly amused.
“the gator popping out like ‘guuuuurl, what is goin awwwwn?’,” one user commented.
“The alligator was like nope, I’m retreating,” another added.
“Look at South Carolina out here Floridaing,” another joked.
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