Cannibal alligator devours another alligator in startling video

The footage would be enough to make Hannibal Lecter wince.

Video has emerged showing the startling scene of an alligator consuming its own in Florida.

The larger alligator estimated at 12 feet long made easy work of the smaller alligator.

It first grips the smaller gator with its teeth inside a shallow lake before moving the carcass onto land.

The incident took place at the Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland.

Cannibal alligator devours another alligator in startling video

Alex Figueroa recorded the moment while on a “morning walk before work” – probably the most eventful in recent memory.

Gary Morse, an officer at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told Fox 13 in Tampa that it is “typical alligator behaviour.”

"What alligators will typically do is they'll take that animal and stuff it some place for a week or two until it gets nice and soft and they can tear it apart."