Disney beaches reopen, state believes it caught killer gator

June 23, 2016 at 21:31

Walt Disney World reopened its beaches to guests Thursday, a source at the Florida theme park with knowledge of the situation told CNN.

The move comes more than a week after an alligator snatched a boy, Lane Graves, from a beach behind the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, killing him.

The beaches will open one hour after sunrise and will close an hour before sunset, the source said. (The alligator attacked the Nebraska 2-year-old shortly after 9 p.m. on June 14.)
Beaches also will include signs and temporary barriers "to further promote safety at our resort and we continue to work on permanent, long-term solutions," the source said.
On Tuesday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced that it was no longer hunting alligators in the Seven Seas Lagoon where Lane was killed.
"The FWC is confident that the alligator responsible for the attack has been removed," the commission said in news release. "The conclusion took into account the proximity to the attack site of removed alligators and witness descriptions."

Following Lane's death, the FWC began monitoring the waters and trapping gators in hopes of finding the reptile responsible or eradicating the area of all alligators matching the witnesses' descriptions.

Gators rarely killers, central to Florida's identity

Past experience dictates that the alligator responsible would have remained near the site of the attack, and trappers located two alligators "in close proximity to the incident location," the statement said. Commission experts concluded that both animals were capable of inflicting the wounds that Lane suffered.

Attempts to confirm via DNA analysis were unsuccessful because Lane's wounds tested negative for animal DNA and no comparison could be made, the commission said in its statements.

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