|
Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum > General Discussions > General Chit Chat > Weird, Bizzare or Just Plain Stupid > Giant Caiman Makes a Splash at L.A. Lake |
| Moderated by: zac41, Voodoo, Revicm, QUADAHOLIC, OSOKILL, MtnOuty, killswitch_1, fmj40 |
|
|||||||||||||||
| Giant Caiman Makes a Splash at L.A. Lake - Weird, Bizzare or Just Plain Stupid - General Discussions - Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum | ||||||||||||||||
| Author | Post | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||
|
killswitch_1 Admin 
|
LOS ANGELES - Park visitors have gone from feeding ducks and fish to nourishing a scaly green creature more likely found in Amazonian swamps than a Los Angeles lake — a giant crocodile-like caiman. Since a gardener spotted it last Friday, people have tried to glimpse the 200-pound reptile wading and sunbathing at Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park. Like many Angelenos, the animal is an immigrant who is quickly adopting to its new home. It has already acquired, for example, a nickname matching its Latin American roots and its penchant for tortillas tossed by visitors: Carlito. "They'll swallow anything, and if they can't swallow it, they'll tear pieces until they can eat it," said Jarron Lucas of the Southwestern Herpetologist Society. Lucas' group, at the request of park rangers, is attempting to capture the animal with nets and a raw chicken, then give it a home at the Los Angeles Zoo. That could take a month, officials say. Cousins to the crocodile, caimans are mostly found in Central and South America. Experts believe this one, estimated to be as long as 8 feet, was released by its owner. "They pick up this little reptile that looks really cute when it's little. But when it gets big and starts looking and acting scary, they don't want it any more," Lucas said. On Saturday, visitors lobbed French bread and jelly doughnuts at the park's 50-acre lake. The caiman didn't bite, though it surfaced several times. In the afternoon, it was found sunbathing on a grassy area along the shore. When a small lifeguard boat whizzed by, the animal slid into the water and disappeared. On Sunday, visitors scanned the waters with binoculars and video cameras while officials kept them 80 feet from shore behind yellow police tape. "It's such an urban area, people just don't see wildlife and people run across it, and they're like, 'Oh, nature!' It scares them," said Bonnie Lea, a member of the herpetologist society. Eight-year-old Cheyenne Espinoza was among those irked by the caiman. She wanted to bring a metal bat from her Harbor City home, but her father wouldn't let her. "I was going to knock the gator out," she said.
____________________ If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man. - Mark Twain |
|||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
|
killswitch_1 Admin
|
More than a week after a man-sized alligator stunned authorities by surfacing in a murky Los Angeles lake, the fugitive reptile has already become a folk hero in the gritty neighborhood where he continues to outwit wranglers and elude capture. Dozens of residents gathered on the shore of Lake Machado on Thursday, sitting in lawn chairs or scanning the water with binoculars as park rangers with nets waited for the 7-foot (2 meter) alligator to rise out of the muck. "We're pretty confident we'll be able to catch him," park ranger Albert Jedinak said as he stared at the calm surface of the lake. "He was actually in the net once but unfortunately we didn't have the boat ready." Meanwhile one woman deployed her two young sons to work the crowd, hawking $10 t-shirts bearing an alligator drawing and the words: "Harbor City You Will Never Catch Me." The alligator -- who was chased around the 53-acre (21-hectare) lake for much of the week by a professional "gator wrangler" from Colorado -- did not make an appearance, having last been spotted on Wednesday night. The wrangler and his crew returned to Colorado on Thursday morning to secure larger nets but vowed to return next week and bag his prey. Still waiting for that moment was animal services officer Guillermo Perea, who sat in a pick-up truck designated to drive the reptile, imprisoned in a giant green box, to the Los Angeles Zoo after it was caught. Perea said he would not take part in the capture, adding: "I'm not that kind of guy. I get paid for dogs, not alligators." Authorities believe the alligator was probably once an exotic pet that was abandoned when it grew too large. Alligators are not indigenous to California. They say they were baffled to discover the reptile basking in the lake at the center of a city park, though they suspect it had been living there for about two months, dining on scraps left behind by fishermen and bread intended for the birds. Though the creature was originally thought to be a reptile called a Caiman, the professional wrangler has since opined that it is in fact an alligator. "I don't think you could say they didn't catch the gator for lack of effort," said local Paul Smith, who has spent much of the past two days watching the action at the lake. "They'll get him eventually. They'll figure something out."
____________________ If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man. - Mark Twain |
|||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
|
killswitch_1 Admin
|
LOS ANGELES - Reptile wranglers searching for an alligator let loose in a southern California lake have given up the hunt — at least for now. The alligator was spotted Aug. 12 in Harbor City's Lake Machado, and since then hundreds of visitors have flocked to the South Los Angeles park for a glimpse. However, the reptile has not been seen since Aug. 21. "We are considering this halftime," Tim Williams, a 30-year gator handler from Florida, said Friday when the search was called off. "He's won the first half." Two men, one a Los Angeles officer, were arrested this past week for conspiring to release the alligator in the 56-acre lake. Williams said the gator has plenty of food — frogs and crayfish inhabiting the lake, and tortillas and chicken legs left by visitors and park officials. Abraham Amezcua, 35, who was selling T-shirts reading "You'll Never Catch Me" in English and Spanish, said the gator may not be seen for a long time. "He's spooked," Williams said. "He knows something is up."
____________________ If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man. - Mark Twain |
|||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
| Current time is 11:02 am | |
| Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum > General Discussions > General Chit Chat > Weird, Bizzare or Just Plain Stupid > Giant Caiman Makes a Splash at L.A. Lake | |
