ORLANDO, FLA. (WSVN) - A brave little girl managed to fight back against an alligator that attacked her in Orlando over the weekend.
Ten-year-old Juliana Ossa was swimming in just a foot of water at Mary Jane Lake on Saturday when the 9-foot gator bit her leg.
“The alligator grabbed my leg, I tried hitting it to release me but it didn’t work,” Juliana told Inside Edition.
That’s when the third grader remembered a trick she learned from alligator wranglers at Gatorland.
“I used what they taught me at Gatorland, so I put my two fingers up its nostrils and it couldn’t breathe and had to breathe from its mouth and then let my leg out,” she said. “The gator didn’t do anything because he was too busy biting my leg and too busy with his claws in the sand. He didn’t have any attack moves to take out my fingers.”
A Gatorland spokesperson said the park was proud of Juliana for managing to escape the gator’s grasp.
“To get an animal with the strongest bite on the planet to let go of you is a miracle,” Gatorland spokesman Donald Aldarelli told reporters. “I’m just happy that she heard it here.”
Juliana got stitches in her leg and is recovering from the attack. Park officials said the gator was later captured and euthanized. The park’s waterfront area has also been temporarily closed as a precaution.
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