Florida hiker dies in alligator attack near Orlando

A 31-year-old woman died after an alligator attack in a river at a Florida state park near Orlando, according to NBC News. She had been hiking with her boyfriend and best friend on Sunday in the Little Big Econ State Forest when the group waded into the Econlockhatchee River to cool off. Authorities said the attack happened around 1:30 p.m. as they knelt in shallow water, and the woman died before rescuers could get her to a hospital.

The details released by investigators underline how quickly routine recreation in Florida’s managed wilderness can turn into a multi-agency emergency. A 911 call recording cited by NBC News captures a chaotic attempt to describe catastrophic injuries while the boyfriend tried to pull her arms away from the animal’s mouth. Seminole County sheriff’s deputies and a professional alligator trapper later captured two alligators near the scene, and DNA samples were sent to a state lab to determine which one attacked.

Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission framed the incident as hard to explain in a single cause. An FWC lieutenant told NBC News it was the end of mating season, when alligators can be territorial, and that a statewide drought had left water levels very low. Those conditions concentrate both animals and people into the same remaining channels, while also changing how visible an alligator is at the surface.

The agency also emphasized rarity: serious injuries from alligator attacks are uncommon in Florida, even though the animals are present in all 67 counties. Yet the same briefing noted that this was the third reported alligator attack in the state in the past seven days, and the second in the past 24 hours in Central Florida. On Monday, the FWC was also investigating a report of a boy bitten on the hand while fishing in Marion County.

Park management responded with a concrete closure rather than a broader rule change. The Barr Street Trailhead near the attack was closed the following day, narrowing access to the river corridor instead of attempting to police behavior in the water itself. Local hikers told NBC News they already treat the area as a place to avoid wading, warning that a female alligator lays eggs nearby.

Two captured alligators — one 13 feet long and the other 12 feet long — now sit at the center of a DNA test meant to assign responsibility after the fact. The river remains where it is, and the state’s drought has not lifted.