Mario Aldecoa’s camera and memory card were snagged by an alligator that he was photographing. Thinking the camera was lost forever, he was shocked when eight months later a gator came out of the pond with the lost camera wrapped around his leg. Even more surprising was the fact that the memory card worked after all that time.

The photo above is one of the images the memory card contained.

Aldecoa, who works at the Everglades Alligator Farm, was attempting to capture the eyes of the 100 or so gators in the farm’s breeding pond at night. The land camera was set up on a tripod about a foot above the water when one bold gator grabbed the whole kit and pulled it into the water.

Just think how much happier he would have been if the camera were in an underwater housing.