Disney faces questions over why there wasn't an alligator warning on beach where boy was dragged to his death - even though neighboring hotel has a beware sign

New footage has emerged apparently showing an alligator lurking in the same lake at Walt Disney World where a two-year-old boy was snatched by a reptile and dragged into the water.

The clip appears to show the Seven Seas Lagoon at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in Orlando just days before the child was grabbed by the animal as he waded in the water with his parents and sister.

During the short video, an alligator can be seen swimming close to the surface of the lake exposing its back.

Two children can then be heard excitingly yelling that they can see an alligator in the water.

According to TMZ, the person who shot the footage said they filmed the creature from the wedding pavilion at the resort.

The website also reports that there had been sightings of reptiles in the lagoon at the Disney resort just last month.

The footage comes as rescue teams continue to search for the young boy who is still missing after being snatched while on vacation in Florida with his family from Nebraska.

During the search the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation have already caught and killed at least four alligators that were found in the lagoon. 

Wildlife officials wrestle with an alligator and load it on to the back of a truck after it killed a swimmer in Florida last year 

Millions of alligators live in the 10 southern states of America. There are about 1.3 million wild alligators in Florida alone, according to an estimate from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That's more than 22 per square mile and about one for every 15 residents. 

'They likely exist in every waterway in our state,' said Kenneth Krysko of the Florida Museum of Natural History's Division of Herpetology. 

Alligators prefer fresh water lakes and slow-moving rivers and their wetlands, but can also be found in brackish, or slightly salty, water. 

Locals have spotted the reptiles in swimming pools and even garages, according to the commission, which receives more than 15,000 alligator-related complaints a year on average. 

Only 23 people in Florida have died from unprovoked alligator attacks since 1948, as of April data from the commission. There have been 383 non-fatal bites reported in that time. 

Last year there were three fatal alligator attacks, one in Texas and two in Florida. In November, Matthew Riggins, 22, was drowned by an alligator before being eaten while trying to hide from police.

He was reported missing shortly after he and another man had made a plan to rob houses in Barefoot Bay according to his girlfriend. His body was found 10 days later floating in Barefoot Bay pond - closely guarded by an 11-foot alligator.

While a month beforehand, 61-year-old James Okkerse was the first fatality in an alligator attack since 2007. Okkerse had been snorkelling with friends in Blue Spring State Park when he went missing.

Several hours later, his body was found near a 12-foot alligator that had previously been spotted and caused a swimming area at the park to close twice. Officials then decided to kill the animal because of the threat it posed to park guests.

But alligators naturally fear humans, wildlife experts said. The reptiles become a threat, or 'nuisance alligators,' when people feed them. Florida law prohibits the feeding of alligators because that removes their innate fear of humans. People can receive a $500 fine for doing so. The commission allows some 7,000 nuisance alligators to be killed each year. 

While rare, alligator attacks are more likely to happen at night. 'That's generally the time that alligators increase their feeding rate,' said the commission's alligator research biologist Allan Woodward, adding that at night the reptiles can 'hunt under the cover of darkness for animals that live on land and come to the water to drink.' 

Woodward added that alligators eat more in the summer when it's hot - just as vacationers flock to waterways to cool off.

Around 1.3million alligators live in Florida, with an average of a dozen attacks against humans recorded each year (file pic)