PHOTO: Gator appears to be lounging on tree branch

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PHOTO: Ronald Saracino

A Cape Coral man could hardly believe his eyes when he looked up in a tree while outside a gym Tuesday night, so he snapped a photo of it: An alligator laying along one of the tree branches.

"I live on the water and we have a mango tree and I see all kinds of lizards every day," said Ronald Saracino. "At first I thought it was some kind of lizard."

But it was no lizard, he said. He walked out toward the canal to get closer a look. "I thought, 'Oh my God it's a gator,'" he said.

Saracino, who is originally from Brooklyn, New York, said he took a photo of it to post on Facebook and show his friends, who couldn't believe it either.

A Florida Fish and Wildlife official tells WINK in Fort Myers that it's hard to tell what it is from the photo but says it does resemble a gator.

The trees are clustered together and the branches are at an angle and FWC says it's not an impossible feat for an alligator.

Saracino said after watching video of an alligator climbing a fence in Fort Myers, this climb looks pretty easy.

"A little kid can climb up this tree like it's nothing,"  said Saracino. "It doesn't look like it's hard at all."