A 12-year-old girl was playing volleyball in the waters of Lake Waccamaw when she felt something bump her leg. Before she and her siblings could get to shore, a 12-foot alligator nicked her left thigh, likely with its tooth.
The girl, who is not being named at the family’s request to maintain her privacy, was not severely injured. But the incident on June 13 rippled through Columbus County’s Lake Waccamaw community, home to nearly 700 alligators that like to lounge by the lake’s pier but rarely interact with swimmers and boaters.
“Before this happened, I really didn’t think they would mess with you,” said the girl’s father, who also asked to remain anonymous. “But I think now people are a lot more cautious.”
Unprovoked alligator attacks are rare in the United States, although they often make headlines. A Michigan woman was killed by an alligator while canoeing in Polk County, Florida, in May. In 2023, a 69-year-old woman was killed by an alligator while walking her dog on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission says the incident in Lake Waccamaw might be the first time an alligator has injured a person in the state.
“Although the alligator’s behavior was unusual, it was not predatory in nature,” said Anna Gurney, a spokesperson for the Wildlife Resources Commission. “As such, it is considered an ‘incident’ and not an ‘attack.’”
Alligators can be found in coastal North Carolina east of Robeson County and as far north as Gates County, according to wildlife officials. Some of the largest populations of alligators are found in Columbus County and neighboring Brunswick County, where the animals live in fresh water like marshes and lakes.
The state wildlife commission has not conducted an official alligator population estimate due to funding constraints. But North Carolina has fewer gators than states farther south.In Lake Waccamaw, home to about 1,700 people, Mayor Matt Wilson said town officials have long warned residents and visitors not to feed or interact with alligators. Feeding the animals is illegal under North Carolina state law.
Wilson, who met with wildlife officials after the incident, said he thinks someone might have fed the alligator that injured the girl. If the alligator was fed, he said, it might have felt comfortable approaching humans.
Wilson said the incident reignited discussions about whether the town’s Board of Commissioners should push for an alligator hunting permit at Lake Waccamaw. They applied for a permit in 2018 when the wildlife commission announced it would allow limiting hunting aimed at maintaining control over its population, but they eventually withdrew.
The town must also come up with new ways to educate the public on how to stay safe and avoid contact with alligators, Wilson said.
Alligators can live up to 50 years in the wild, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute, making it hard to control their populations, Wilson said.
After the incident last month, the girl’s father shot the alligator on its right side. The next day, wildlife officials found the animal under the pier, where they killed it.
