Scientists Finally Identified the Predator Hunting Alligators in Mississippi River — It Wasn't Alone

A 9-foot alligator was found sliced clean in half near Baton Rouge in the Mississippi River, and its wounds doesn't match anything that should live in that river. In this video, we work the case like a crime scene — ruling out gators, snapping turtles, and poachers one by one until only one suspect fits the bite. But when researchers dig into acoustic tracking data from nearby, they uncover a pattern that shouldn't exist in this predator's known behavior at all. What they found suggests something happening in the Mississippi that's never been documented in the species before, anywhere in the world. Watch to see how the evidence stacks up — and why wildlife officials are now taking it seriously enough to expand their investigation.