Knock knock

The new debt collectors?In Tampa, Florida, seeing an alligator isn’t really that uncommon as they are all over the place, but to have one of the 11-foot beasts hanging around your front door is a little unnerving.

 

Belinda Donaldson, who lives in a Tampa suburb, recently found out a huge gator was resting on her front porch after a neighbor phoned her and warned her not to open her front door!

 

She didn’t really believe what she heard until she peeked out the window and saw the 500 lb. giant lying around like a porch ornament.

 

Donaldson phoned animal control officers to have an alligator wrangler come out and handle matters.

After two hours passed and the trapper, Mike Fagan, still hadn’t arrived the neighbours began to worry that their children would be coming home from school before the animal was caught. Not that it seemed to be immediately aggressive, as it spent the time lying practically motionless on the porch.  WhenFagan finally arrived, Donaldson sneaked out the back door and joined her neighbors across the street to watch him try and catch the animal. 

 

This seemed to rub the reptile the wrong way, however, as it suddenly came alive and resisted the wrangler’s attempts to capture it for over an hour.Fagan finally managed to slip a noose around the animal’s neck, but it kept trying to break free by rolling on the porch.

 

In true Crocodile Dundee fashion, Fagan eventually managed to drag the gator to the lawn and rope it to a tree before rolling it on its back. Once there, the beast promptly fell asleep and the trapper was able to tie its jaws shut and truss its legs. Donaldson’s neighbors then chipped in and helped carry the gator into a cage on a special truck.

 

Unfortunately, gators that get too familiar with humans are put to sleep in Florida as it is thought that they might repeatedly enter inhabited areas and pose a serious risk to humans, and the wandering reptile was later put down.

This wasn't the first alligator to decide to take a nap on someone's property, as alligators periodically venture into suburbia.  They are most likely to do so during this time of year, as they search out females to mate with.

Want some more amazing alligator facts?

• Alligators can live up to 50 years, although some have been known to reach 75!
• They are only native to America and China, although how they crossed the ocean is a mystery!
• While other animals sit on their nests to provide enough warmth to incubate their eggs, alligator females bury their eggs in nests of vegetation which then produces heat as it decomposes!
• Alligators are normally at the top of the food chain in their habitat, eating panthers and bears if they get hungry enough!
• As if their sharp teeth weren't enough to chew up their food, alligators can also have special stones called 'gastroliths' in their digestive tract to help grind food particles.
• The smaller Chinese alligator is severely endangered.  To help,  you can visit the Crocodilian Society to learn more.