That's no turtle! It's another alligator

Youths' discovery is 2nd in region in a week; it's likely to be euthanized

Friday, July 6, 2007

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

N.C. wildlife officials on Thursday picked up a 31-inch alligator that was found in a Maiden pond and planned to euthanize it.

The alligator, trapped by Catawba County authorities Wednesday, was nearly 250 miles away from its nearest natural habitat.

Three boys were fishing at the pond, on Fairview Drive in Maiden, about 40 miles northwest of Charlotte, when they saw something swimming near the water's surface, said Eric Kanipe of the Maiden Rescue Squad.

"They thought it was a turtle," he said, "and one of them threw a stick at it. That's when the alligator popped its head out of the water."

Kanipe and Marty Lee, another member of the rescue squad, lured the alligator out of the pond with a piece of bologna tied to a string. The animal, Kanipe said, was calm and appeared used to being handled by humans.

"It was probably somebody's pet," he said, "and it outgrew whatever space they had, so they let it go."

Keeping an alligator as a pet is against N.C. law.

It's the second alligator found in the Charlotte area in a week. On June 27, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Control captured a 20-inch, 5-pound baby alligator in east Charlotte.

But pet alligators aren't the only dangerous and illegal animals that have been found recently in the area. On June 28, a Mount Holly man fishing in the Catawba River caught a piranha, which are indigenous to South America.

Kanipe, who has worked with snakes and other reptiles since childhood, said the Maiden alligator was likely between 11/2 and 2 years old. The animal's skin was smooth and free of pond buildup, and the alligator had probably been in the water for less than six weeks, he said.

Officials said the animal would likely be euthanized because it had been domesticated and might approach humans if it were freed, Kanipe said.

In North Carolina, alligators are native only to coastal areas from Wilmington south, said Alan Feduccia, a professor of biology at UNC Chapel Hill.

The distance from the shore and the colder winters in the Piedmont and western part of the state make their chances of survival unlikely, he said. "These are very isolated incidents and aren't anything to worry about," he said.

Still, if the area continues to see more mild winters without snow and ice, Feduccia said, an alligator likely could live through the winter.

"Alligators have a more remarkable ability to withstand cold than a lot of people think," he said. "If we head into the future with mild winters like the ones we've had, there's no reason why an alligator couldn't have easily survived."

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