Just after I shot this phot a young man of 19 or 20 thought it would be fun to throw stones at this guy...long story short, the gator only missed him by a foot or so...those guys can run in short sprints at 30 miles per hour. He was only in a couple of feet of water and less than six feet from the shore....which was less than half his body length.
I think he was close to being this year's first Darwin Awards recipient.