Florida (USA) - The term "outdoorsman" was invented for US American Mike Dragich (35). The 35-year-old prefers to spend his time outdoors, never avoiding danger. If things get dicey on the roads or in the wilderness of his home country, his phone rings.

This is what happened on Monday. The police in Jacksonville (Florida) needed Dragich's help - a huge alligator had strayed onto a highway, was to be caught and put back into the nearby St. Johns River. A case made for the ex-marine.

Dragich arrived, and motorists must have rubbed their eyes in amazement afterwards. The police described the strange scenes as follows:

"If you were driving on I-95/I-295 yesterday and thought you saw a barefoot man wrestling a giant alligator in the median - no, your eyes did not deceive you. That's what happened."

A video posted by Jacksonville Sheriff's Office on Facebook and later shared by Dragich on Instagram is proof: the 35-year-old did indeed take on the mega-reptile barefoot.

The footage shows how the alligator tries to fight back, but Dragich manages to grab it and pulls the animal off the grass and onto the hard shoulder of the road.

The amateur fighter (two wins, two losses in MMA) then made use of his ground fighting skills.

The 35-year-old sat on the alligator's back, grabbed it by the mouth with one hand and put a noose around it with the other. The reptile was incapacitated. Together with a ranger, Dragich carried it to his pick-up truck, stowed it in the back and posed for a photo, laughing out loud.

The outdoorsman and father of four then presented his heroic deed to his more than 380,000 Instagram followers. The reward: almost 600,000 likes!