Spotted in Louisiana: a fearless, tailless alligator waddling across Highway 23 like he owns the road—because clearly, tail or no tail, confidence is everything. 🤷‍♂️🐊

One Louisiana woman had quite the tale to tell after encountering a unique tailless alligator on May 19.

Ashlyn Bartholomew posted a now-viral photo to Facebook of an alligator with a missing tail crossing Highway 23 in Plaquemines Parish, La. As of May 28, the post has received thousands of interactions.

In a clip of the reptile shared by Bartholomew, the slow-moving gator makes its way across the highway, awkwardly waddling as it navigates without its tail.

“I couldn’t tell at first if he was an alligator or a big dog or what,” Bartholomew told local outlet Nola.com. “This was the first time I ever saw an alligator without a tail.”

Bartholomew first noticed the alligator lying down in the road, “minding his own business,” after dropping her sons off at baseball practice.

In response, she recorded the reptile and posted images of the creature on Facebook with the caption, “Y’all be careful. There’s half an alligator walking on the road.”

And while there’s no telling what caused the gator to sport a stump where its tail should be, reptile expert Robert Mendyk from the Audubon Zoo has a few theories.

Mendyk told Nola.com that the alligator’s tail could have been lost due to a run-in with a boat propeller or, most likely, a rival gator.

Mendyk added that alligators regularly survive such amputations. “The wound walls itself off and heals,” he said. “They have really phenomenal healing and regenerative abilities.”

He also noted that if the alligator was attacked, it was likely attacked by a male alligator with the “bite force” to chomp off a tail.