First published August 5, 2019.
In May 2018 a short phone video from a Florida golf course went viral for an unusual reason: a full-grown alligator was not chasing anything. It was being chased. A line of geese marched behind the reptile, honking, as it plodded across the fairway and out of their way. Many websites later called the birds "angry ducks", but the original news reports describe them as geese.
The scene was filmed on the Champion Course at PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, near the ninth hole, during the second annual Christie's Critters Invitational, a charity golf event celebrating pets and animal rescue. Golfer Ryan Witkowski was driving towards the ninth hole when he saw the birds go after the alligator, and the clip spread quickly through local TV stations and social media.
The birds in the stills look like Egyptian geese, an introduced species that now breeds in South Florida and is famous for its bad temper towards intruders. The images below follow the encounter frame by frame, then show how people online reacted, and finish with what the clip tells us about sharing space with wildlife on a golf course.
The encounter, frame by frame
The alligator crosses open grass with a tight group of geese only a few body lengths behind it. Alligators are ambush hunters that do most of their hunting in or near water, so an adult walking across a dry fairway is usually just moving between ponds. Out in the open it has little advantage, which may explain why it chose to keep walking rather than turn on its pursuers.
Palm trees and a water hazard frame the scene, a reminder that Florida golf courses are built on former wetlands and often sit next to lakes and canals. Those water features give alligators the habitat they need, so sightings on courses are common in the state. The geese keep their distance here, close enough to make their point but far from the reptile's jaws.
Moments later the gap between the birds and the alligator has opened up. Egyptian geese are known for chasing intruders out of their territory, even other birds and drones, and it appears that a large predator received the same treatment. The video does not show whether there were goslings nearby, so we cannot say for certain what set off the chase.
Watch the full clip
The whole encounter lasts well under a minute. Listen for the honking: geese use loud calls and outstretched necks as a warning display, and a group calling together makes the message hard to ignore.
How people reacted online
When the clip was shared on Facebook, hundreds of people joined in. These are some of the comments that were screenshotted at the time.
One commenter joked that even an alligator wants nothing to do with "cobra chickens", the internet's favourite nickname for Canada geese. The joke works because geese have a well-earned reputation for hissing and charging at people who get too close to their nests.
Another viewer said the clip was the reason she would never visit Florida again. Alligators are widespread in Florida's lakes and canals, but serious attacks are rare: records cited on Wikipedia list about five documented bites a year in the state since 1948.
This reply imagined the scene as a low-budget creature feature on the SyFy channel, complete with a monster-movie title. The comparison fits: the clip has a villain, a plucky gang and an unlikely victory.
Some people read the moment as a lesson about standing up to something bigger. A group of small animals acting together, this commenter suggested, can look a lot like brave protest.
A two-word reply borrowed the title of John F. Kennedy's 1956 book Profiles in Courage. It was meant affectionately, crediting the geese with heroism on the fairway.
This comment took the teamwork angle and left the thought unfinished, as if the video said the rest. Mobbing, where several birds gang up on a predator, is a real and well-studied anti-predator behaviour in many bird species.
One commenter shared a childhood memory of a friend whose family kept guard geese in their yard in Oakland, California. People have used geese as noisy watchdogs for centuries; according to Roman legend, the sacred geese of the Capitoline Hill raised the alarm during a Gallic attack in 390 BC.
The shortest reply may sum the video up best. Strength in numbers is exactly what the geese relied on, and the alligator seems to have agreed that the fight was not worth it.
Why would an alligator back down from geese?
Adult alligators do eat birds, mostly waterbirds and unsteady fledglings caught near the water's edge. But a predator has to weigh every encounter. A healthy adult goose on dry land is alert, mobile and part of a group that can scatter or fly at any moment. Chasing it across open grass would cost energy with little chance of success, while being pecked and buffeted brings risk for nothing. Walking away is the sensible choice.
It is also worth being careful with the word "angry". We can see that the birds are calling, following and holding their wings and necks in a threat posture. What they feel is harder to know. Territorial defence is a simpler explanation than revenge, and it fits what is known about these geese.
Staying safe around alligators on a golf course
The golfers in the clip watched from their carts, but a cart is not a shield. Alligators can move surprisingly fast over short distances. If you play golf or walk near water in the southern US, a few common-sense habits help:
- Keep a generous distance, and never try to move, chase or photograph an alligator up close.
- Never feed alligators. In Florida it is illegal, because fed alligators lose their fear of people.
- Do not retrieve balls from the edge of ponds where alligators may be resting.
- Keep dogs on a lead and away from the water's edge.
- If an alligator seems to be a threat, contact the course staff or the state wildlife agency rather than dealing with it yourself.
The same goes for the geese: they bite and beat with their wings when they feel cornered, especially around nests. The best way to enjoy a moment like this is the way the golfers did, from a distance and with a camera.
Sources: Video filmed by golfer Ryan Witkowski and distributed via Newsflare; FOX 35 Orlando: Brave geese honk at and chase after alligator at golf course; Laughing Squid: Geese chase alligator across golf course; Wikipedia: American alligator; Wikipedia: Egyptian goose. Comment screenshots from the public Facebook thread where the clip was shared.
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