Florida Cop Muzzles Alligator After Smacking It on the Snout, on Video

Crocodile hunters may be all the rage Down Under ... but alligator hunters are born and bred in Florida -- with the state's cops being some of the best around.

The West Palm Beach Police Department shared a video Tuesday of an officer tangling with a reptile in a parking lot ... kicking off with the cop holding tightly onto the animal's snout -- before losing his grip.

Watch the clip ... faced with the sinister grin of his foe, the officer lifts up under its chin and tries again. When the alligator again slips away, he smacks it on the head a couple times to get it to look up ... before he and a partner are able to slap some tape around its jaws to muzzle it.

In the caption, the West Palm Beach Police Department joked officers need to be “ready for anything, even when it has scales and a serious attitude.”