How big does a gator need to be in order to eat a full size duck?

Question

Last night my mom heard a duck quacking and then screaming. She went out to our lake (it's like 10 feet from our house) to see what was wrong. She beamed the flashlight and saw 2 eyes of a gator who had ahold of the duck. He kept taking the duck under water then above water where it would flap and quack, then back under the water. She ran back into the house. We have pretty large ducks here.... how big would a gator need to be to kill one? And what was he doing - trying to drown it first? I didn't know gators ate like this.... we live in a neighborhood in FL (we've only lived in FL for a year) where we haven't seen any gators before but they're supposed to be removed when they reach 5 feet.... any ideas of how big this one could be?

Answer 1

Not very big at all you'd be surprised.

Call the authorities and let them know you have a gator.  They will send an expert to come and humanely remove it and relocate it to a place that is safer (both for the gator and people.)

If you have dogs or cats, don't let them outside unattended and watch them like crazy.  Ditto for small kids in the neighborhood.  A sign warning that there is a gator in the lake is not a bad idea either.

Answer 2

depends on the size of the duck but a 2,5-4 foot gator could easily kill a duck. they drowning in one of many methods they use to kill there food before they eat it (they quite often kill food before they eat it)

Answer 3

This is so funny, I live on Long Island, NY and they were talking about how a roughly 3 feet gator was found in a lake in a park. My first thought was exactly your question.....can he eat a duck...probably a small one, definately ducklings and fledglings. So I would say about 4 feet long would easily take a duck.