Records for extreme southwest Indiana date back to the1800’s, but very few have been taken in the past decades. August 6, 2011 at 1:37 PM It was the reptilian equivalent of moving into a five-star restaurant. Jake Jackson of Mount Carmel, Illinois, shot it with an arrow in the White River. Some researchers believe the Chinese alligator may be the inspiration behind the dragon in Chinese folklore and mythology. They were also spotted in the Wolf River this year. The bold creature was apprehended by police officers of the 34th Precinct, who dropped him off at a nearby animal shelter. Wildlife officers promptly relocated the critter. “It was every bit of 200 pounds,” said an official with the IDNR. But I have seen alligators and caimans available at pet stores, and every once in a while, someone releases a pet alligator into a river or lake in hopes that it will survive in the wild (I guess). Thanks to careless pet owners, the big reptiles are also causing trouble above and beyond the Mason-Dixon line. Pullen Pond also has Gators. Although they didn’t find any drugs, the man was written up for illegally owning an alligator without a permit. Still, when a two-foot alligator decided to jaywalk across 9th Avenue last July, people definitely took notice. However, the pièce de résistance was an 8-foot alligator thrashing around inside the bathtub. A Cryptid Mystery. Shaler Township, Pa., Police Lt. Dave Banko says an employee found the 2-foot-long creature Friday, July 19, 2019 near a … Once the homeowner was arrested, he turned over all six animals to specialist officers. The owner was terrified to find a 9-foot, 5-inch alligator climbing up his steps. Alligator snappers are native to the southeastern United States, though they have been known to range as far north as southeastern Iowa and western Illinois. Outside of zoos/ aquariums of course. “I saw something wave at me, and it was [an] alligator’s tail,” he told the press. Down in Florida, when a gator clambers into somebody’s swimming pool, most police deputies don’t even bat an eye. Alligator snappers were thought to have been completely eliminated (extirpated) from Indiana until one was found in 1991 near the White River in Morgan County. The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States, with a small population in Mexico. Recently, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources confirmed that a man in Lansing—a suburb of Chicago—had unlawfully kept an alligator in his basement for 26 years. North Carolina is the farthest north that alligators are found naturally, Vliet said. Author: 11 Alive Staff and news source … It’s been said that nothing fazes Manhattanites. St. Tammany Parish? Thinking fast, he alerted his colleagues and made sure that every single student was confined to the cafeteria. Its owner claims that her three-year-old son must have stuffed the foot-long reptile into her purse at some point. farthest north alligator has been found; science 3D Printed Gummies, A Labyrinth Made Of Salt, And Other Amazing Images Of The Week. “I hear he couldn’t get a cab,” one officer Tweeted. Judging by snapshots that onlookers provided, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries estimates that the creature was anywhere from 9 to 10 feet long. West Virginia has almost no regulations on alligator ownership– probably because most people have sense enough not to own one! It is listed as a Weed of National Significance (WoNS). Laplace? The players, understandably, kept their distance until animal control hauled their wannabe mascot away. In March 2012, a Florida congressman was attending a funeral on Merritt Island. The Chinese alligator has been called the muddy dragon and also as the Yangtze alligator, as it inhabits the Yangtze River Valley and the surrounding area. An American alligator has been found wandering around a scout camp on the Australian south coast, leaving wildlife experts baffled as to how it arrived there. I got interested in this myself a year or so ago, and while I have yet to see any, I found multiple articles online about alligators being pulled out of Missouri ponds and lakes. Even the official, fully documented cases have been marching steadily north. As far as I know he never locked through Lock 9 at Morrilton, but he could have walked around the Dam and gone further upstream. That's pretty crazy! Thankfully, he was soon discovered by an O’Hare employee, and is now getting professional care from the Chicago Herpetological Society. Cookies help us deliver our Services. When one Brookeville resident dialed 911 and announced that an alligator was lounging in his backyard koi pond, he was met with skepticism. I guess it can be considered a zoo but Colorado Gators Reptile Park has a ton of gators there too. Security footage later revealed that he’d boarded Chi-Town’s Blue Line train that night with his owner. Earlier this year, something a lot scarier than the mailman came knocking on a mobile home door in Plant City, Florida. “And he wasn’t thrilled with Uber either …”. about it: "Alligators and humans have shared marshes, swamps, rivers and lakes of the Gulf Coast and Southeastern United States for many centuries. Some were put there in the 70s to try to get them back into their original range. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the AskAnAmerican community, AskAnAmerican: Learn about America, straight from the mouth of Americans, Press J to jump to the feed. The articles always assured the reader that they alligators HAD to be recent releases, no way could they form a viable population in MO, no way they could survive the winters.... http://www.kctv5.com/story/20661417/rural-fishermans-big-catch-has-whole-town-talking, https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2014/07/31/Fisherman-catches-alligator-in-Missouri-pond/4321406823921/, http://fox2now.com/2014/07/28/fisherman-nets-alligator-while-fishing/. A licensed trapper was called in to help get rid of it. For the next hour, the woman delighted in showing Allie off to her fellow travelers—many of whom posted pictures on social media. Alligator snappers were thought to have been completely eliminated (extirpated) from Indiana until one was found in 1991 near the White River in Morgan County. However, a quick Google search didn't turn anything up about one being seen, but there is fear that they could move into VA in the near future. “About one in ten survived,” the man noted. American crocodile is a highly fecund species (38 clutch of eggs; fecundity over 20 after 15 years old) with a high adult survival rate and long life span. For the alligator, the United States placed it on the endangered species list in 1973. The press nicknamed him “Allie.” On Halloween night in 2013, this juvenile gator was found cowering under an escalator near Baggage Claim 3 at O’Hare International Airport. There is little question that a grown alligator was documented only 5 miles from the Virginia border in 2011. Whether it ever gets warm enough for alligators (releases or wild ones travelling up the Mississippi) to survive MO winters remains to be seen, but I have heard that flesh-eating bacteria is now surviving winters in our waterways , so I think I'll just sit on the dock and read... There’s no way they’re in MO. Elsewhere in the Bayou State, another alligator made quite a scene on September 3, 2015. We are a tad west of your mapped area and our county in NC borders VA. We have a peaceful co-existence with the gators as long as people don't do thoughtless things like trying to feed them. But members of Vero Beach’s force were truly stunned to discover a live one at the bottom of a residential hot tub. I'm thinking they're not really found in the wild up here. In 2013, local deputies served a drug-related warrant at his home. Last July, a Port Charlotte, Florida-based minor league baseball team arrived at their home field to find a 10-foot alligator in the visitors' dugout. To distinguish the two, alligators have a more U-shaped snout while crocodiles have a more pointed or V-shaped one. The reptile enthusiast later faced misdemeanor charges for having illegally purchased the animal. There is a population of them within a swamp near Glencoe, Ontario . After putting up a fight, the three-footer was removed and given to the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo—but not before it devoured a few hundred dollars’ worth of koi. Both the American Alligator and the American Crocodile have had extremely low populations in the past due to over hunting. You never know when you’ll run into one. At its February 2018 meeting, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) adopted a rule to allow limited take of American alligators (H6) as prescribed by the North Carolina Alligator Management Plan (Plan). Back in January 2016, the gator was spotted in the owner’s basement by an appliance repairman. North Carolina, Asheville. From a Chicago airport to a British bathtub, here are a few of the weirdest spots where live alligators have turned up. According to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, “the American alligator is found in the United States from North Carolina to … During a 2012 raid in Runcorn, Cheshire, police officers found way more than they’d bargained for. Apprehended by local authorities, it was given to a Massachusetts company that performs educational shows. When was that and where was it? Before every landing, a special crew is tasked with chasing gators off NASA’s runways, where the big reptiles enjoy basking on the hot asphalt. Still, at 7 a.m. one Monday morning, a science teacher spotted it ambling along in the parking lot. At Toad Suck Lock and Dam in Conway one was locked through the lock back in 1999 by a co-worker of mine. Records for extreme southwest Indiana date back to the1800’s, but very few have been taken in the past decades. The reptile captured last … The behemoth proceeded to take a cat nap on one family’s porch before wandering off. One Sherlington, Louisiana resident came home one morning in April 2016 to an uninvited houseguest. An eight-foot-long alligator has been seen in recent days along the Chattahoochee River near Interstate 285. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. The Farthest north an American Alligator has been sighted was Chattanooga, Tennessee in the late 1990s. As the service progressed, a 6-foot-long alligator made itself right at home beneath his vehicle. Alligator weed has extremely vigorous growth and great tolerance of normal control measures, which makes it a major threat to wetla… Call it the mystery of the too-far-north … “We’ve got gators blocking doorways, hiding under cars, [and] climbing fences,” the island’s deputy refuge manager has said. That's as close to VA as I can get you. I've lived in Hampton Roads for 4 years and haven't seen one and haven't heard anyone around here talk about seeing one before either. There was an alligator in Loveland, CO awhile back. It is one of two extant species in the genus Alligator within the family Alligatoridae; it is larger than the only other living alligator species, the Chinese alligator. In the wild, alligator snappers have been found submerged at water temperatures ranging between 70 to 74 °F. The American alligator has a large, dark, slightly rounded body and thick limbs. The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is also found in south Florida, among other places. No barriers. Merritt Island also happens to be home to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Now there have been alligator sightings in Tennessee though. The status of the alligator snapping turtle in Indiana is uncertain. Instead of notifying the authorities, he spent an entire year feeding raw chicken to his backyard freeloader. The Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) is endemic to eastern China. Specifically interested in AR, MO, TN and VA. Nevertheless, a young collar-wearing gator reared its scaly head at an Enfield bus stop in 2012. An escaped alligator was found in a Petaluma couple's backyard Thursday night. Far too many people have reported encounters with "It" over the years, for it, or them, to be anything other than something startlingly and highly unusual. We’re happy to report that no humans or gators were hurt in the process. South Carolina is the farthest I have seen one. “He was pretty feisty,” the Deputy Inspector told reporters. Turns out they like it here well enough and being a wildlife refuge, they're fairly protected. Alligators have been in our area since at least 1996. The Stokes alligator, which measured 15 feet and 9 inches long and weighed 1,011.5 pounds (~458.8 kg) is in display at the Mann Wildlife Learning Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. “Rest in peace.”. For the first time in at least 100 years, an alligator gar has been caught in Indiana. The status of the alligator snapping turtle in Indiana is uncertain. Ever couple years one has to be wrangled out of a retention pond or pool. Despite the gator’s temperament, some of Manhattan’s finest couldn’t resist joking about it. I've never heard anything about Alligators in VA, but I also live in the mountains. Fortunately for the politician, a trapper soon arrived to haul the creature back into the wild. The tastiest images from around the web. Unbeknownst to his neighbors, the alligator’s owner would let it out to roam around his backyard on occasion. They also tend to complicate space-related activities. Though I've eaten alligator in NoVA. The creature was caught by an employee and returned to its owners in short order. Alligator weed is a potentially devastating weed that grows in water and on land, affecting both waterways and floodplain areas. I've been wanting to but events keep getting in the way. A baby alligator has been found in the parking lot of a grocery store near Pittsburgh, making it the fourth alligator found in the city since May By … Ever couple years one has to be wrangled out of a retention pond or pool. Edit: Yep, they've been spotted in the Elk River in TN. Although it was evidently someone’s pet, the owner of this tiny commuter has never come forth. It was headed upstream. So far, there have been no reports of anyone assaulting the reptile with a measuring tape. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. Though the Administration owns 46,000 acres of land there, only 6000 are used for its space program. An enormous alligator has been found by a group of hunters in the state of Georgia, likely setting a new record for the state. A 3-foot-long, collar-wearing alligator was found Sunday strolling down a street in Brockton, Mass. They've been seen throughout the refuge, in Redstone Arsenal, and as far upstream Guntersville having somehow made it through or around the dam and locks. They probably can be seen in southern Tennessee because they're in Wheeler Wildlife Refuge in north Alabama. “The lady [on the line] said, ‘Are you sure?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s a gator,’” the man later recalled. In Connecticut, it’s illegal to own alligators, crocodiles, or caimans. A gym was keeping it as a pet. It is full of Gators of all sizes. Although rare further north, the alligator snapping turtle has been found as far north as the southern tip of Ontario in Canada. They were also spotted in the Wolf River this year, https://www.denverpost.com/2007/07/14/creature-shuts-down-loveland-pond/. They have been found as far up the Mississippi as Arkansas. It just dawned on me that I've never seen an alligator in person. Here's some info. Locals lost their shit and an attempt was made to recapture them. This photo provided by Shaler Township Police shows a baby alligator has been found in the parking lot of a grocery store near Pittsburgh. But once Allie’s owner arrived at the airport, she abandoned the little pet and caught another train. The homeowner claimed that the alligator was already living there when he’d moved in. This photo provided by Shaler Township Police shows a baby alligator has been found in the parking lot of a grocery store near Pittsburgh. To say North Carolina's Lake Norman is the haunt of a monster or monsters is no understatement. But every population boom has its side effects. Mandy Stokes, who shot dead the animal, has said the alligator was 24 – 28 years old, which was determined from an analysis of its leg bone. https://www.denverpost.com/2007/07/14/creature-shuts-down-loveland-pond/. Attention shoppers! A male alligator bellow is far louder than the vocalizations of the larger crocodile (Conant 1998). They've been seen throughout the refuge, in Redstone Arsenal, and as far upstream Guntersville having somehow made it through or around the dam and locks. His new roommate, a sizable male specimen, was driven outside by professional wranglers. A 7.5-foot alligator that was living in a Wake County pond was captured Monday, North Carolina officials say. ON A BUSY MANHATTAN STREET. It’s been said that nothing fazes Manhattanites. By the time officials from the nearest Sheriff’s Office arrived, the intruder had propped its snout and forelimbs against the door—about a foot below the handle. Today, gators and humans cross paths at an alarming rate—and not just in the South. Still, when a … I am surprised how for north people are saying. Like all true crocodilians, the American crocodile is a quadruped, with four short, stocky legs; a long, powerful tail; and a scaly hide with rows of ossified scutes running down its back and tail. That day, residents of LaPlace, Louisiana witnessed an enormous adult crawl out of a local storm drain. They're as far north as Kitty Hawk, NC now. Back in 2014, a shopper at a Carlisle, Pennsylvania grocery store unwittingly released a pet alligator in the produce aisle. As he geared up for a meeting later that day, he spotted the intruder in his living room. After busting into a suspected criminal’s home, law enforcement discovered illegal substances, four cobras, and a rattlesnake. 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That every single student was confined to the cafeteria dawned on me that I never! Don ’ t get a cab, ” the man was written up for illegally owning alligator., 2015 Uber either … ” written up for illegally owning an alligator without a permit of. Propel itself through water when he ’ d bargained for the Lock back in 2014, Florida... Believe the Chinese alligator may be the inspiration behind the dragon in Chinese folklore and mythology warrant. For extreme southwest Indiana date back to the1800 ’ s temperament, some of Manhattan ’ s owner would it.
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