Why "la" when I think it refers to alimento?

Question

"En ocasiones, un cocodrilo más pequeño podría conseguir un poco de alimento y un cocodrilo más grande se la quitará", dijo Constable. Why "la" in "...se la quitará..."?

I translate - On occasions, a smaller croc could get a small bit of food and a larger croc will take it away from him.

The "se" replaces the "le" (from him) but not sure where the "la" comes from. Alimento is masculine so I thought "lo" should replace "la". Am I correct?

Answer 1

En ocasiones, un cocodrilo más pequeño podría conseguir un poco de alimento y un cocodrilo más grande se la quitara. (le quitara la comida)

It is possible that the author is thinking about comida, alimentación, enchilada, sopa, etc, but in the end the use of la incorrect - there is nothing in the first clause to support its use in the second clause, so it must be lo. The other possibility is that it´s a typo.

Answer 2

I'd say:

Occasionally, a smaller crocodile could get a small bit of food, and a larger one would take it away from him.

I think that the constable (guardia??) used la instead of le because although he said el alimento he later mean la comida.

En ocasiones, un cocodrilo más pequeño podría conseguir un poco de alimento y un cocodrilo más grande se la quitara. (le quitara la comida)

It could sound a little odd. Of course is not the ideal use of grammar, but is usually used in that way. Only a native could understand that change from lo to la .

I hope it's clear, and let's wait for another native Spanish answers

Answer 3

I think that this writing's author made a mistake."se la quitara" refers to "un poco." However, genders don't match. So it should be: un cocodrilo mas grande se lo quitará. I think that "un poco" is the key here. Un poco is masculine. I could say: un cocodrilo mas pequeno podria conseguir una porcion de alimento y un cocodrilo mas grande se la quitara. I used " se la quitara" because I am referring to Una porcion (femenine gender).