If I only had room. - Where Responsible Reptile Keepers Connect!

razeraze · #1 (**permalink**) 07-18-2008, 04:05 AM

"PLAINFIELD, Ill. -- Visitors to a south suburban lake on Saturday found their much-sought-after peace interrupted by an unexpected visitor, an alligator lurking among the herons in the Will County rookery.

The Joliet Herald News reported Tuesday that a 4-foot American alligator was spotted by bird watchers, then seen again Monday morning by Will County Forest Preserve staff.

On Monday, Forest preserve volunteer Rita Renwick first saw the alligator resting on a log near a group of black crowned night herons.

"I thought, 'Am I seeing things? What could that be besides an alligator?'" said Renwick, who has led interpretive nature walks at the rookery for 18 years. "I've never seen anything like this."

Renwick e-mailed forest preserve spokesman Bruce Hodgdon about the alligator. Hodgdon set up a meeting with forest preserve staff and members of the Chicago Herpetological Society at the lake Monday afternoon.

The plan, Hodgdon said, is to catch the alligator alive, rehabilitate it and release it into its native habitat.

But the alligator was elusive Monday, surfacing when the forest preserve staff first arrived, then remaining submerged, the paper reported.

"It's a waiting game now," said Dan, a Chicago Herpetological Society member who declined to give his last name.

"All you're going to see sticking out right now is going to be nostrils and a pair of eyes," he said.

The alligator was probably placed in the lake by someone who kept it as a pet, officials said."

Full story here:
Authorities Try To Catch Alligator In Suburban Lake - News Story - WMAQ | Chicago

JuliusSqueezer · #2 (**permalink**) 07-18-2008, 04:29 AM

Maybe Oliver Platt will fly in with his gator copter and save the day

burmeselover15 · #3 (**permalink**) 07-18-2008, 04:30 AM

lmao yea what he said lmao

razeraze · #4 (**permalink**) 07-18-2008, 04:32 AM

Turns out they caught it, I saw this link after I posted the first one.
cbs2chicago.com - Alligator Caught In Lake In Plainfield
I know the "Dan and Bob" from the Chicago Herpetological Society who took it in they are great keepers and rehabilitators. So it should be a happy ending.

JuliusSqueezer · #5 (**permalink**) 07-18-2008, 07:31 AM

I guess at 4 feet, it was too small for Betty White to be feeding it cows anyway. Glad it went to a good home. Bummer they can't make a sequel out of this.

razeraze · #6 (**permalink**) 07-18-2008, 08:08 PM

A sequel to lake placid? It was done, and terribly I might add.

Or a sequel to this incident? With all the alligators they confiscate in Illinois, I give it 12 months and we will have another alligator let loose around here.