US student takes alligator graduation snaps
08 August, 2018
A US college student has made sure her graduation snaps are ones to remember - after posing in her cap and sash with a 14ft (4m) alligator. Makenzie Noland is a student at Texas A&M University who will graduate on Friday with a degree in wildlife and fisheries sciences.
The senior has been interning at a Beaumont rescue centre which is home to about 450 alligators, crocodiles and other reptiles. But it's Big Tex that steals the show - a gargantuan alligator who was adopted in 2016 after overfeeding turned him into a nuisance for local boats.
Makenzie and Tex have developed a special relationship since she joined the centre in May. She says he responds to his name and reacts to her hand signals when she regularly enters his pond to feed him. "I get in the water with that animal every day - he's one of my best friends there!" she tells the BBC, shrugging off a question about being scared.