Tailless Alligator Waddles Across Road and People Wonder About His Ability to Survive
No species is immune to injury, and unfortunately, animals sometimes suffer grievous injuries and humans can do nothing to help them. Recently, there was a video of a tailless alligator shared across multiple news outlets, and it caused quite an uproar!
In the original video taken by Ashlyn Bartholomew and then shared by @cbsnews, an alligator in Southern Louisiana stopped traffic and can be seen slowly waddling across a busy two-lane road. Unfortunately, this alligator has completely lost his tail. As you can imagine, he is still recognizable as a gator, but most people are stunned by the sight of him due to the obviously grim injury he has endured.
The video has sparked lots of questions about how he survived such a terrible injury, what may have happened to him, and whether his life expectancy will be affected by the loss of his tail.
An expert from the Audubon Zoo, Robert Mendyk, weighed in on the gator's predicament and theorized about how he may have lost his entire tail. He suggested that the alligator could have been injured during a territorial fight with another gator or he potentially crossed paths with the propeller on a boat motor.
The cause of the injury is less important to concerned viewers. They would like to know if wildlife professionals can rescue him, and many are concerned about his quality of life.According to Mr. Mendyk, alligators can survive without their tails. However, without it he potentially could have lost his ability to swim. Therefore, if he can't swim, he must stay on the shore or in low-lying water areas such as canals or swamps.
Alligators do have regenerative and restorative healing abilities. However, the zoo expert says, this guy is unlikely to see any growth to the lower portion of his body. Mr. Mendyk says that gators can heal after an injury of this magnitude and though they face challenges, they can learn to adapt to their new body.
Tailless Alligator Waddles Across Road and People Wonder About His Ability to Survive first appeared on PetHelpful on Jun 3, 2025
This story was originally reported by PetHelpful on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
19 hours ago
- New York Post
CBS host warns Trump admin plans for moon base could usher in new age of space colonialism
CBS News host Vladimir Duthiers questioned the Trump administration's plan to establish a base on the moon and drew parallels to Earth's history of colonialism. On 'CBS Mornings Plus' on Wednesday, Duthiers and co-host Adriana Diaz discussed the White House calling for more human space exploration and administration plans to build a nuclear reactor on the moon to precede an eventual U.S. lunar base with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Advertisement Diaz asked if it was 'inevitable that we're going to have to go to the moon and try to colonize the Moon?' Tyson said that the United States is being 'reactive' in a race to the moon with China, and stated, to the laughter of the panel, that he does not want to 'live on the moon.' But Duthiers questioned if colonizing the moon was a good idea. 'We know how the age of colonialism worked on this planet,' the host said. 'Should we be trying to colonize and saying that there's a keep-out zone that no other countries can participate in having?' Advertisement Tyson replied by pointing out that it would be difficult to colonize an area that does not have people. 3 Duthiers questioned if it was a good idea to colonize the moon. CBS 3 United States astronaut Buzz Aldrin salutes the American flag on the surface of the Moon after he and fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first men to land on the Moon during the Apollo 11 space mission July 20, 1969. REUTERS 'Well, the — the real problem with the colonization history in Western civilization is that there were people already there,' Tyson said. Advertisement Duthiers and Diaz agreed, and Tyson added that 'there are no moon beings that were displaced as far as we know.' Tyson later criticized administration plans to decrease funding to NASA. 3 Tyson said that the moon would be difficult to colonize because no one lives there. CBS 'What's not on brand is to cut science programs, not only in NASA, but across the board, and then say, we want to excel in this one spot,' Tyson said. Advertisement 'Well, in the 1960s, science was a major investment profile of the United States,' he continued. 'And by the way, it's not on brand even for Republicans, because Republican administrations since the Second World War have had a higher annual increase, average annual increase, in the science budget than even the Democrats.' 'So Trump's decision to cut science is not on brand for even being a Republican,' Tyson added.
The Hill
4 days ago
- The Hill
Support for NASA returning to the moon and going to Mars is surging
A recent poll conducted by CBS News provides an encouraging look into public support for the Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon and eventually send humans to Mars. Sixty-seven percent of respondents favor a return to the moon and just 33 percent oppose one. On Mars, sixty-five percent favor sending astronauts to the red planet with 35 percent in opposition. Support for sending astronauts back to the moon tracks favorably among all age groups, with 71 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds in favor. The current favorable view of the Artemis program contrasts with what people thought of the Apollo program to land men on the moon while it was ongoing. As space historian Roger Launius pointed out, most Americans, with the exception of one poll taken in July 1969, took a dim view of going to the moon. 'Consistently throughout the decade, 45-60 percent of Americans believed that the government was spending too much on space, indicative of a lack of commitment to the spaceflight agenda,' Launius wrote. Incidentally, the CBS News poll shows that now Americans believe that the Apollo program was worth the effort, 77 to 23 percent. The findings were consistent with those taken on the 50th and 40th anniversaries of the first moon landing. The fact that support for going back to the moon and on to Mars is uniform across all age groups jumps out. In times past, some have suggested that supporters for sending astronauts beyond low Earth orbit mainly consisted of boomers nostalgic for the glories of the Apollo program. If that was ever the case, it isn't any longer. Laura Seward Forczyk, a space career consultant, video blogger and author of ' Rise of the Space Age Millennials,' likely spoke for a lot of younger people on X when she posted, 'I hope to live to see humans walking on another world again. Artemis III can't come soon enough.' Her sentiment expresses a desire for something beautiful and glorious in a world often ugly and dispiriting. Come to think of it, that was the Apollo 11 moon landing in the midst of the turmoil of the 1960s. A lot of famous space influencers, such as former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, billionaire private space traveler Jared Isaacman, video blogger Eliana Sheriff and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk were not alive when men first walked on the moon. One word of caution should be made about how poll results can often be influenced by question-wording. In 2023, the Pew organization released a poll suggesting that returning to the moon and on to Mars were of lower priority than things like asteroid detection and measuring climate change. Nevertheless, when combining the answers 'top priority' and 'important but lower priority' space exploration still enjoyed healthy support, with 57 percent favoring a return to the moon and 56 percent going to Mars. People are looking forward to witnessing the first footsteps on the moon in over 50 years and the first ever on Mars. Donald Trump was the latest president of the United States to make that promise when he started the Artemis program during his first term. Now, he has to deliver. Unfortunately, President Trump is in serious danger of blowing it. Over six months into his second administration, America still does not have a permanent NASA administrator, thanks to Trump's capricious, last-minute withdrawal of Isaacman's nomination. The White House and the Congress are wrangling over NASA science funding and how long the space agency should retain the Orion Space Launch System architecture for returning to the moon. Trump needs to move quickly to nominate a permanent head of NASA. He could change his mind again about Isaacman, though he may be loath to admit to making a mistake. The White House also needs to reestablish the National Space Council as a center for the formulation of space policy. The council performed great service during the first Trump administration. It can do so again. Finally, Trump and Musk should resolve their feud. The most powerful man in the world and the world's richest man work better together than at cross purposes. Trump has won some great domestic and foreign policy victories. It will be a pity if his legacy is one of letting China get back to the moon before we do. Mark R. Whittington, who writes frequently about space policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled ' Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? ' as well as ' The Moon, Mars and Beyond ' and, most recently, ' Why is America Going Back to the Moon? ' He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Yahoo
Most Americans favor US returning to moon and going to Mars, new poll shows
Americans want the U.S. to return to the moon and shoot for Mars, according to a new poll. According to a YouGov/CBS News poll, 67 percent of respondents said they'd like to see the U.S. send astronauts back to the moon for further exploration. Slightly fewer — 65 percent — said they wanted to see the U.S. send explorers to Mars. Respondents aged 30 and older were all fairly consistent in their approval of exploring the cosmos, with 68 percent of people ages 30-44 approving, and 65 percent of respondents aged 45 and over signing onto more space exploration. Younger adults, aged 18-29, were 71 percent in favor of further exploration. The general approval for space exploration extends backwards as well; when asked if they believed the 1969 moon landing was worth the effort, 77 percent of respondents said it was, with only 23 percent saying it did not seem like it was worth the trip. In this photo provided by NASA, astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin poses for a photograph beside the U.S. flag deployed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. A recent YouGov/CBS News poll found that 67 percent of Americans supported a return mission to the moon, and 65 percent supported a manned mission to Mars (1969 AP) The overall support for space exploration is likely tied to another metric measured in the poll: a fair number of Americans believe that successful journeys to the stars contributes to feelings of national pride. The poll found that 44 percent of respondents believed space exploration added somewhat to the U.S.'s national pride, while 29 percent said it added "a lot" to national pride, and 27 percent said it does not add much. The same number of individuals who believe space exploration adds to national pride — 44 percent — also felt that it contributes some to scientific advances. A smaller number, 33 percent, felt space exploration yields "a lot" of scientific advancement, while 23 percent believed it added little or nothing to scientific discoveries. Solve the daily Crossword
