2
3
A kayaker was caught on video attempting to out-paddle an alligator in Mobile Bay near Spanish Fort, Alabama.
The heart-stopping footage which lasts just 15 seconds, was caught on camera by Shannon Collins. It has been viewed nearly 270,000 times since it was posted on Sunday.
Shannon said that she was eating at a restaurant when the man in the kayak appeared.
Following just feet behind, an alligator can be seen stealthily approaching.
The kayaker begins to paddle faster as the deadly reptile gets closer.
Eventually the man paddles out of view and it is not clear what happens to him.
'When you really really really don't want to tip over your kayak...' Shannon wrote on her Facebook page.
She later added some context to the gripping video clip stating that the gator was simply just hanging out in the reeds until the man in the kayak got closer and lingered for a few minutes.
As the man hovered in the water, it was long enough to tempt the gator to leave its hiding place and follow the man in the kayak.
Shannon said that she then spoke with the man once he had made it back to shore.
'The kayaker was an avid outdoors-man who was used to seeing lots of gators,' she wrote. 'He was very nonchalant when we talked to him at the shore...not at all panicked (like I would have been!).'