A woman mistook a caiman for a piece of wood.

In Mexico, a woman was swimming in a pond when she suddenly felt something floating between her legs. She thought it was a piece of wood and pulled it out of the water. She soon realized it wasn't a piece of driftwood, but a live alligator caiman.

Screaming, she immediately threw the reptile aside and hurried to shore. The moment was captured on video.

Wildlife conservationists urged caution in unfamiliar waters. Alligators and crocodiles are adept at camouflage: the predators can easily be mistaken for driftwood. "If something in the lagoon looks like a log, assume it has teeth," the experts advised.

The alligator caiman is a predatory reptile of the alligator family, native to Central and South America. It gets its second name from the distinctive bony ridge between its eyes, which resembles the frame of a pair of eyeglasses.