I used to see gators with their mouths open like this, sunning themselves out on a little island in Lake Alice. They were usually still kind of cold and slow, and I'd see a bunch of birds hanging out near them, sometimes even ON them.
Seven to Eight foot makes him still a puppy but not one I want to play with. He lay on that log for the better part of three hours and then, with no preemptive indicators, slid into the water with nary a ripple. Suspect he was hungry.