{"id":393,"date":"2022-10-23T07:06:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-23T07:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=393"},"modified":"2022-10-23T07:06:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T07:06:11","slug":"trail-cam-video-of-alligators-hunting-mating-and-fighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=393","title":{"rendered":"Trail Cam Video of Alligators Hunting, Mating, and Fighting"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Bobby Wummer has spent the last 10 years filming and photographing wildlife in South Florida. Over that time, he\u2019s learned a lot about the state\u2019s most treasured wildlife species, and how to stealthily capture footage of these critters in their element. Trail cameras have become an essential part of that strategy, says Wummer, who regularly shares these photographs and videos to his Instagram page<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe trail cameras definitely help me out, and I get to actually capture videos that I never would have gotten otherwise,\u201d Wummer tells Outdoor Life<\/em>. \u201cYou\u2019re not disturbing these animals when you do it, that\u2019s the greatest part. I\u2019ve gotten videos of bobcats crying for their mates, gators bellowing, panthers talking\u2014I even got a Florida mink in the swamp, and very rarely do you ever see those.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Wummer lives in Palm Beach County, which lies on the Atlantic coast roughly 70 miles north of Miami. He\u2019s been there since childhood, and he worked on the local police force for about 30 years before retiring and diving headfirst into wildlife photography. He\u2019s seen plenty of changes over the years as Florida\u2019s population has grown and development has accelerated, but he says there are still plenty of spots where you can find healthy wetlands and wildlife populations.<\/p>\n

He spends some of his time in Ocala National Forest<\/a>, which he calls \u201cthe black bear capitol of Florida.\u201d He also makes the occasional trip down to the Everglades, where he\u2019s seen first-hand the destruction that Burmese pythons<\/a> have wrought on the region\u2019s mammal populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m telling you, I had cameras down there for over a year and you just don\u2019t see the amount of mammals that you should,\u201d Wummer says. \u201cI talk to locals and they say that since the pythons showed up, they don\u2019t see any deer. We don\u2019t have the snakes up here yet, or at least I haven\u2019t seen one, but they\u2019re coming. You just can\u2019t catch \u2018em all.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

VIDEO: Bobcat Fights a Python, Steals Its Eggs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Photographing Alligators <\/h2>\n

There is, however, another reptile that Wummer spends a lot of time around: alligators. As much as he gets tired of tourists asking him if he\u2019s \u201cseen any gators\u201d\u2014which happens every time they see him in the swamp with a camera\u2014he says he truly enjoys spending time around the big uglies.<\/p>\n

\u201cGators are just fun to watch, and I can spend days out there watching \u2018em. I don\u2019t do it from an eye-to-eye point of view. I have a friend that snorkels with \u2018em, but I\u2019m not going that far.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Wummer likes to keep his honey holes to himself, but he says some of his favorite gator spots are located on the far (west) side of Lake Okeechobee. He had at least five trail cameras set up there over the last couple months, but unfortunately most of those were damaged when Hurricane Ian made landfall and flooded the swamps. He explains that since he was specifically targeting alligators and other small critters, he attached the cameras lower on trees. He was unable to retrieve them in time, though, and when he showed up after the hurricane weeks later, a few of them were still underwater.<\/p>\n

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When he\u2019s not looking for alligators, Wummer likes chasing big bucks in the cypress swamps. He only shoots a camera and isn\u2019t a hunter himself, but he still enjoys putting on a ghillie suit and seeing how close he can get to the deer. Of course, when he\u2019s putting out cameras for whitetails, he focuses more on game trails and places them higher up on the trees. He also makes a point never to face his trail cams due east or west. He knows that deer are most likely to move around sunrise and sunset and tries to avoid direct sunlight on the lenses.<\/p>\n

Wummer also appreciates trail cameras for the same reason that most hunters do: they allow him to keep an eye on an area without having to hang around there all day.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou just can\u2019t stay out there all day in the summertime, or you\u2019ll roast. And at night the mosquitoes will eat you alive,\u201d he says. \u201cAs a photographer, it\u2019s just really cool to add [trail cams] to your repertoire. Most of your videos won\u2019t have anything in them, but every now and then you get to see the animals in their own habitat doing wild stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n