Brave photographer Masa Ushioda captured the shots of this wild gator in vast marsh land in the Everglades National Park, in Florida, USA. He said: “Bright sunlight and blue sky were critical elements in this picture – in addition to getting a wild 10-foot alligator in the middle of the viewfinder with a perfect angle”.

The Great Dismal Swamp is a marshy area in the Coastal Plain Region of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, between Norfolk, Virginia, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina. It is located in parts of southern Virginia cities Chesapeake and Suffolk and northern North Carolina counties Gates, Pasquotank and Camden. It is a southern swamp, one of many along the Atlantic Ocean's coast, including the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp in Florida, the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, the Congaree and Four Holes swamps of South Carolina, and some of the Carolina bays in the Carolinas and Georgia. Along the eastern edge runs the Dismal Swamp Canal, completed in 1805.

The incredible photographs show the three alligators crowding around the man’s head as they look directly at the camera and one even appears to sit on his lap whilst another reptile places a claw on his arm as it swims towards the surface. Photographs taken from above the surface show animal handler, Chris Gillette (29) from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA holding an alligator out of the water. The images of Chris were taken by Michael Dornellas at the Everglades Outpost Wildlife Rescue, Florida USA. Here: Mich­ael Dornellas brings the beast up close and personal to the camera. (Photo by Chris Gillette and Michael Dornellas/Mediadrumworld.com)

A Bengal tigress who gave birth to four cubs at the Guadalajara Zoo, Jalisco state, Mexico runs at the zoo on October 5, 2021. (Photo by Ulises Ruiz/AFP Photo)

Muslim women offer “Tarawih” mass prayers during the first evening of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at Sheikh Zayed Grand mosque in Solo, Central Java province, Indonesia, March 22, 2023, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. (Photo by Mohammad Ayudha/Antara Foto via Reuters)

Jack, a Lurcher from Dogs Trust Salisbury, walks past a window display of models in a Dogs Trust shop window in Salisbury, as part of a campaign to discourage the impulse buying of dogs ahead of Valentine's Day, on February 10, 2014. (Photo by Matt Alexander/PA Wire)

Six-month old female liliger cub Eva plays in snow with her mother Zita in the Zoo in Novosibirsk, Russia, Thursday, December 5, 2013. The cub's mother is Zita, a liger – half-lioness, half-tiger, and its father is a lion, Sam. (Photo by Ilnar Salakhiev/AP Photo)

The Mile O' Mud is a 7/8-mile oval track with a 1/8-mile diagonal lane slashed through the center. The racing lanes are approximately 60 feet wide. On average, the muddy water is four to six feet deep, with three strategically placed holes. The largest hole, located in front of the grandstand, is the treacherous “Sippy Hole”, named for the legendary driver “Mississippi” Milton Morris, Swamp Buggy King 1955, who repeatedly got stuck in it. (Photo by Malcolm Lightner)