Officials say “the crocodile is linked to the death of a man on the Frisbee golf course,” where people often hunt for discs to sell.
       Florida police said a man died while searching for a Frisbee in a lake at a Frisbee golf course where signs warned people to beware of alligators.
       The Largo Police Department said in an email Tuesday that an unidentified man was in the water looking for a Frisbee “in which an alligator was involved.”
        The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission said in an email that the deceased was 47 years old. The commission said a contracted expert is working to remove the crocodile from the lake and “will work to determine if this is related” to the situation.
        The park’s website states that visitors can “discover the game of disc golf on a course nestled in the natural beauty of the park.” The course is built along the lake and there are signs forbidding swimming near the lake.
       Regular CD-ROM students say that it’s not uncommon for someone to find a lost CD and sell it for a few dollars.
        “These guys are out of luck,” Ken Hostnick, 56, told the Tampa Bay Times. “Sometimes they would dive into the lake and pull out 40 discs. They could be sold for five or ten dollars a piece, depending on the quality.”
        Alligators can be seen almost anywhere in Florida where there is water. There have been no fatal alligator attacks in Florida since 2019, but people and animals have occasionally been bitten, according to the Wildlife Council.
        Wildlife officials stressed that no one should approach or feed wild crocodiles, as reptiles associate people with food. This can be more of a problem in densely populated areas such as apartment buildings where people walk their dogs and raise their children.
        Once considered endangered, the Florida alligators have flourished. They mainly feed on fish, turtles, snakes and small mammals. However, they are also known to be opportunistic predators and will eat just about anything in front of them, including carrion and pets. In the wild, alligators have no natural predators.