The fine fellow in this photo is a 4-5 year old alligator. No, he's not native to the Sonoran Desert. He was found in a Rubbermaid container, in the parking lot at work, early this morning by one of our security staff. Whoever left him there had thrown a handful of hotdogs in with him, and then just driven off. Our herpetology staff hastily took care of the poor, scared little guy and found him a larger tub to sit in, in the shade of their building, complete with securely padlocked lid.
We went over to pay him a visit after lunch. Bill had just finished up a 'Live and (sort of) On the Loose' presentation and was happy to open the lid for us and talk about alligators in general. Turns out he was quite excited - it was the first time he'd got to handle an alligator since he started working at the museum seventeen years ago, although previously he'd worked with them at the Philadelphia Zoo. We'll be shipping the gator off to a dedicated rescue facility in Phoenix soon, although Bill did say he'd love to take him home. I guess he felt his wife wouldn't be receptive to the new family member.
Bill pointed out that the tail was quite badly injured - chewed almost down to the bone. It's probable that the alligator had been housed with turtles who had done this to him. Luckily, the wound was clean and looked like it would heal just fine. We also learned that in order to sex a gator, you have to put your hand inside the cloaca, and feel the shape of whatever's in there. At just over three foot long, this youngster is too small for any of the herpetologists to be able to do that, so my apologies if I've been using the wrong pronouns for him! Hopefully he'll forgive me.
What with the inauguration this morning, streamed live into our theater for the benefit of staff, and a long lunch with my colleague Gareth, his sister and mother, the day went by very quickly. (See a couple more photos at Flickr).
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You could always just ask her/him what pronouns she/he prefers. :-)
ReplyDeleteWhere is the species from ? We've got tons of those suckers out here.
ReplyDeleteThere is a nature/walking/running trail out by the college here and I won't take my children on it because I'm afraid a gator will get them.
I would have to check with Bill again on the exact species, but he said he was sure whoever had dropped it off here had originally bought it from someone in Florida. He did say, however, that gators rarely attack people in comparison to crocs, and had an interesting story about a friend of his who had witnessed a crocodile go up to a rhino drinking at the water's edge, grab the rhino's nose, drag it into the water and kill it. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteHere in Hot Springs, Ark, they have a place called, The Arkansas Aligator Farm. It's basically a big gift shop with about ten pens out back with pools in them. They have about 40 different sizes of aligators in them. I haven't been there in over 30yrs, but back then you could buy a young 8" long aligator cheap, right out of a big bowl at the front door. I guess they never thought about what the owner was going to do with it when it grew up. The place has been in business for over 70 yrs, that's a lot of gators sold!
ReplyDeleteSeems there always pulling alligators our of California ponds and lakes. People buy these cool looking critters when small and when they get too big they dump them. Same with snapping turtles neither of which are native to California.
ReplyDeleteAlligator soup! Yum! Bwahahaha! (just kidding)
ReplyDeleteAlligators are really cool creatures! They're an important part of the environment where they're a native species. However, they make a really poor choice for a pet, they get 8 feet long for pete's sake!
It's bad enough when people abandon the pets they had no business with in the first place like this poor poor fellow. Whether it's the "big cats" or any other species, if there isn't a law against it perhaps there should be a permit required for it!
ReplyDeleteMy son and his wife live a block from one of the city parks here and these last few months have seen throngs of dogs and cats dropped off...some young, some not so young and obviously bewildered at their loss of home. That it is next door to the city "shelter" that gives them 3 days to be adopted is an even crueler twist of fate.
Perhaps I read "Black Beauty" too young and too often as a child...
alan