Some people living in a Plantation neighborhood are living in fear of a large, toothy alligator that has been sunning itself on the bank of a nearby canal.
Resident Wendy Bellack and her daughter, Jill, snapped several photographs of it from a distance on Monday.
"We've been keeping an eye out for it, really, to try to see if it's a mama, a baby or a papa," Bellack said.
The alligator, baring its toothy grin in one photo, has been lurking near the C-42 canal along Hiatus Road just north of Broward Boulevard. It appeared to be at least 5 feet long.
The canal where the gator was discovered by neighbors has Everglades access, and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers said it is just another case of reptiles and humans co-existing in South Florida.
However, because it is now mating season, alligators are more active and may be spotted more regularly.
Bellack said she worries the gator might attack one of the local dogs or horses that live in the community.
"It's too close to home, too close for comfort," she said.
Bellack and her neighbors have called Florida Fish and Wildlife, as well as the South Florida Water Management District, which oversees the canal. If the alligator is deemed a nuisance animal, a trapper could be called out to contain it.