A 10-year-old Florida girl fended off an alligator when it chomped onto her leg by ramming her fingers up the animal’s nose — a survival strategy she learned at a gator theme park — and prying the alligator’s mouth open, state wildlife officials said.
Juliana Ossa told NBC’s Today show that she was scared when the nearly 9-foot alligator bit her left leg and wouldn’t let go as she was sitting down in shallow water at an Orlando lake Saturday. She said she first struck the alligator on the head, but the reptile didn’t loosen its grip. Then she remembered a life-saving technique she was taught at Gatorland.
“I stuck my two fingers up its nose so it couldn’t breathe — it had to be from its mouth — and he opened it, so it let my leg out,” she said.
Juliana needed more than a dozen stitches for multiple puncture wounds but is otherwise doing OK, according to Today. The alligator was later euthanized, Florida Fish and Wildlife said.
The little girl said she thought the gator took her to be a “ginormous piece of chicken.” She urged others to stay calm if they find themselves in a similar “alligator emergency.”
“Do the same thing,” she said. “Don’t be scared.”
[NBC]
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Introducing the 2024 TIME100 Next
- Sabrina Carpenter Has Waited Her Whole Life for This
- What Lies Ahead for the Middle East
- Why It's So Hard to Quit Vaping
- Jeremy Strong on Taking a Risk With a New Film About Trump
- Our Guide to Voting in the 2024 Election
- The 10 Races That Will Determine Control of the Senate
- Column: How My Shame Became My Strength
Contact us at letters@time.com