A ‘Tarzan influencer’ was attacked by an alligator he caught in a river with his bare hands.
Gianpiero ‘The Tiger’ Fusco sparked widespread outrage after filming himself invading the caiman’s habitat.
In the video, the 30-year-old influencer – who has nearly 1m followers on Instagram – jumped from a small boat into the water wearing shorts and a headlamp after spotting the reptile.
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He lunged at the animal, seized it and proudly displayed it to the camera for several seconds.
The caiman reacted defensively, clamping its jaws on his hand and drawing blood as Fusco shouted: “Don’t bite me! It bit me, it took my skin off!
“Son of a b*tch, let me go!”
Despite the attack, he clambered back aboard the boat still clutching the reptile, at which point it lunged at him again, apparently striking the influencer across the face.
Gianpiero, a content creator from Táchira State in Venezuela, later posted a follow-up video defending his actions, as reported by Need To Know .
The influencer, who rose to fame for his controversial 90% raw meat diet, insisted he had been “the one mistreated” and claimed he always intended to release the caiman back into its habitat.
He added that hunting and eating caimans – locally known as ‘babas’ – is a longstanding tradition in his home region.
The clip, captioned ‘the lizard hunt that went wrong’, quickly went viral on Instagram with 1.5m views.
Users accused him of animal abuse and reckless behaviour purely for likes and clicks.
One commenter wrote: “I can’t wait for your account to stop existing. My God, you are everything that’s wrong in many aspects.”
Critics highlighted the risk such stunts pose to wildlife and questioned whether influencers have a duty to set a better example rather than disrupt natural habitats for content.
Gianpiero, who shares wildlife content on social media, has not commented further on the backlash.
The incident has renewed debate in Venezuela about the boundaries of extreme content creation and the protection of native species such as the spectacled caiman, whose populations are already under pressure from habitat loss and illegal hunting.
No official statements from wildlife authorities have been issued so far.
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