Texas A&M Coed Takes Eye-Popping Graduation Photos With Giant Alligator: Beast Named Big Tex is Her Water Friend

A brave college student is saying see Texas A&M University later — with an alligator. This bold Aggie bid farewell to college with a little help from a huge friend. She’s gone viral thanks to her unexpected graduation photos accessory: a 14-foot gator who goes by the name Big Tex.

“Not your typical graduation picture,” Makenzie Alex Noland posted alongside her eye-catching photo. You can say that again.

The photos — chilling or awesome, depending on your point of view — show Noland posing with the primordial beast in knee-deep water, all decked out in her Texas A&M stole and graduation cap.

No Instagram Stunt

This was no attention-seeking stunt. The wildlife ecology major has known Big Tex since May, when she started her internship at Gator Country, a Beaumont-based rescue center.

“I get in the water with Big Tex every single day,” Noland tells PaperCity. “I was super excited to show off my ring and Aggie pride by getting in the water with him. I just asked my boss at the end of work one day and hopped in the room to go change.

“My boss was all for it,” Noland says. Her boss, Arlie Hammonds, shot the whole interaction in 15 minutes. It was a breeze for Noland, who had earned Big Tex’s trust. She feels a healthy mix of comfort and adrenaline when she gets in the water with the alligator.

It was just slightly different than a regular day. “I was trying not to get my dress or my stole wet. I don’t think I got too dirty. I still have to wear that to graduation on Friday,” Noland laughs.

Her graduation photos didn’t just go viral. They went global. Facebook users commented that they’d seen the toothy pics all the way in Thailand and Argentina. Some gave the Aggie kudos. Others were quick to shame her. It wasn’t unlike the backlash that Katarina Zarutskie, the Houston Instagram model who got bit while posing with sharks, faced.  And the critics aren’t afraid to go graphic.

“Obviously a bit thick. It’s a wild animal. One day you’ll be rolling with it and it’ll stuff you under the bank until you rot. Idiot!” one wrote.

“That’s a wild animal. No amount of ‘training’ or ‘handling’ in the world can prepare a human being for the unpredictable nature of a primitive beast like this,” another commented.

But it looks like the good outweighs the bad. “I support anyone that has the love for wildlife! You’re a huge inspiration… the world needs more people like you to help protect our wildlife!” a supporter wrote.  “Fact is if he is fed and not in mating season or defending a mate or territory he won’t attack. She’s fine in a controlled environment,” another noted.

Noland’s happy for the well wishers and takes the haters in stride.

“He’s not some man-eater that’s just going to lunge out of the water to chomp your arm off. Tex is a gentle giant. He’s one of a kind,” she says.

He’s trained to know Gator Country employees’ hand signals and voices. She’s not doin’ it for the ‘Gram. She’s doin’ it for the gators, to raise awareness, to raise respect.

“I would tell people to come to Gator Country and see what we do here,” Noland says. The 15-acre center rescues “nuisance animals” that have been stranded after natural disasters, don’t possess the hunting skills needed to survive in the wild or who wander into ponds, backyards and near boats looking to be fed, like Big Tex.

Slightly less cute than your dog begging at the dinner table, Big Tex was rescued in 2016 from the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge in Liberty. He had the habit of swimming up to boats for scraps. Beggars can’t be choosers, and they certainly can’t be beasts.

Now, Big Tex is fed on feral hogs and donated meat. Give the gator some credit. Not just anyone goes from the swamp to social media star.