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# What's This? Oh Nothing, Just a Raccoon Hitching a Ride on an Alligator

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by 

[Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/)


## Samantha Grossman


Jun 15, 2015 4:45 PM UTC

by 

[Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/)


## Samantha Grossman


Jun 15, 2015 4:45 PM UTC

Sometimes, really incredible things happen in nature — like this moment when a raccoon was seen riding on top of an alligator:

> [](https://twitter.com/WFTV/status/610117797985800193)

A man named Richard Jones captured this image in Florida’s Ocala National Forest Sunday, WFTV [reports](http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/man-snaps-unique-picture-raccoon-top-gator-ocala-n/nmcmC/). He and his family were walking by the Oaklawaha River looking for alligators, and when his son walked through some palm fronds to try to get some photos, he apparently startled the raccoon, who then hopped onto a nearby gator.

“I snapped a lucky picture right when the gator slipped into the water and before the raccoon jumped off and scurried away,” Jones told WFTV. “Without the context you’d think the raccoon was hitching a ride across the river.”

So, sadly, this is not a picture of a super-chill raccoon bumming a ride from his equally chill gator friend — but Jones still calls it “the photo of a lifetime.”

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