{"id":327860,"date":"2026-07-02T23:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T23:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/327860\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T23:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T23:13:08","slug":"florida-alligator-victim-brittany-clark-did-nearly-everything-right-to-avoid-fatal-mauling-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/327860\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida alligator victim Brittany Clark did nearly everything right to avoid fatal mauling: expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

The victim of a deadly alligator attack in Florida<\/a> did almost everything right before she was killed when the animal ripped her apart, according to a wildlife expert.<\/p>\n

Brittany Clark, 31, was swimming in the Econlockhatchee River at Little Big Econ State Forest on Sunday afternoon after a hike with her boyfriend<\/a> when the alligator suddenly attacked her.<\/p>\n

Conservation biologist and experienced alligator handler Joseph Wasilewski told The Post that the California native hadn\u2019t taken unnecessary risks \u2014 but warned of the dangers of entering the water in Florida.<\/p>\n

Florida alligator victim Brittany Clark. Facebook\/Brittany Clark<\/p>\n

Clark was attacked at around 1:30 p.m. \u2014 in the middle of the day \u2014 which Wasilewski said is the safer time to get in the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more dangerous at dawn and dusk,\u201d Wasilewski \u2014 who has worked with and studied alligators and crocodiles for over 50 years \u2014 told The Post.<\/p>\n

The Florida-based biologist also stressed the importance of having someone on lookout if you do go swimming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally would only swim during the heat of the day in an area that other people are watching,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alligator and crocodile expert and conservation biologist Joseph Wasilewski. Joseph Wasilewski<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do go in the water, make sure you have someone standing by watching,\u201d he said. \u201cHave someone on the shore that\u2019ll watch, because if there\u2019s an alligator, they\u2019ll see it coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wasilewski explained that he had experience himself in supervising dives in crocodile- or alligator-infested waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I worked for Florida Power and Light, and there\u2019s crocodiles on their property, and they\u2019re protected, when they have divers in the water, they have to hire me or somebody like me to stand watch over the divers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, he added that the person on lookout doesn\u2019t need to be an expert on the animals.<\/p>\n

Clark was killed on Sunday while swimming in three feet of water in the Econlockhatchee River. Facebook\/Brittany Clark<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be nice if there was an expert, but there\u2019s not a lot of crocodile and alligator experts,\u201d Wasilewski said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust have somebody with common sense as a watch out\u2026 an adult that knows right from wrong and good from bad,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Wasilewski believes that the alligator that killed Clark was likely defending its territory, as June and July mark the nesting season for the giant reptiles.<\/p>\n

Wasilewski has more than 50 years of experience working with alligators and crocodiles. Joseph Wasilewski<\/p>\n

He also said he was stunned to discover the size of the alligator \u2014 which he said was bigger than any he\u2019d ever come across in his decades of working with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen a 13-footer in the wild, and I\u2019ve seen tens of thousands of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Wasilewski had a clear answer on how to stay safe in the water in Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can quote me on this: stay the hell out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Clark\u2019s distraught boyfriend called 911. Facebook\/Chance Allison<\/p>\n

Clark\u2019s dad, Robert Clark, previously told The Post that his daughter was with her boyfriend, her roommate, and their dogs on that fateful day.<\/p>\n

He insisted that his daughter \u201cdid know about wildlife\u201d and the potential for an alligator to be in the water there, and blasted officials not doing more to control the beasts and warn of the dangers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t go there to maliciously abuse alligators and fish and wildlife,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wasilewski said the 13-foot alligator was bigger than any he had ever encountered in the wild. Reddit\/u\/derf_vader<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing was done, no barriers put up, no warnings saying, \u2018This is infested with alligators right now, think twice about stepping in the water,\u201d the grieving father added.<\/p>\n

Wasilewski agreed that park rangers and staff had the responsibility to warn the public of the dangers of nesting alligators.<\/p>\n

\u201cRangers, staff, people at the park, they all know if there\u2019s a big alligator around, and if there\u2019s any potential danger, they all know that, and they would and should warn the people or rope an area off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what warnings, if any, there were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark\u2019s devastated friend<\/a> \u2014 who says she was with her at the time \u2014 said that the pair had joked about an alligator moments before the deadly attack.<\/p>\n

Clark\u2019s boyfriend, Chance Allison, can be heard in the harrowing 911 call<\/a> made as they desperately tried to save her.<\/p>\n

Clark\u2019s father told The Post she \u201cdid know about wildlife.\u201d Facebook\/Chance Allison<\/p>\n

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which manages the park, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

A FWC spokesman previously told The Post: \u201cSerious injuries caused by alligators are rare in Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FWC places the highest priority on public safety and administers a Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program (SNAP) to address complaints concerning specific alligators believed to pose a threat to people,\u00a0pets\u00a0or property.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesman added that when the FWC receives calls to its Nuisance Alligator Hotline, it dispatches contracted nuisance alligator trappers to resolve the situation.<\/p>\n

Between 1948 and 2025, the FWC recorded a total of 500 unprovoked bites in Florida, of which 32 resulted in fatalities,\u00a0Click Orlando reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe page, set up by Clark\u2019s aunt, Gena Smith, to help with returning her body to California, has so far raised more than $11,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The victim of a deadly alligator attack in Florida did almost everything right before she was killed when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13925,20572,10822,28,30,29,4278],"class_list":["post-327860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alligators","tag-animal-attacks","tag-deaths","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}