Officials On The Look Out For Alligator… In Chicago

There are lots of things you can expect from Chicago. Wind, weird hot dogs, even weirder pizza, and great steak. The one thing you wouldn’t think would be an issue in Chicago would be an alligator on the loose.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that officials are now hunting an alligator that has been spotted by several people in the Humboldt Park Lagoon. Upon preliminary investigation, police officers also witnessed the reptile in a body of water around 1,200 miles north of where it is normally found.

The good news is that it’s a young gator, no more than 4-5 feet long. The bad news is that the adolescent gator seems to be smart enough that it has evaded the traps that specialists set out for it for the last three nights.

One volunteer specialist who has taken up the hunt, Alligator Bob, drew a crowd yesterday as he paddled a canoe out into the middle of the lagoon in search of the living dinosaur. Sadly, Bob’s hunt was also futile.

There is a lot of speculation as to whether the animal is a released pet or possibly a confused animal that took a very wrong turn somewhere along its journey. The lagoon has a reputation for being a dumping ground for unwanted pets with 12″+ Goldfish, and exotic turtles often being spotted in its waters.

Amazingly, this isn’t the first time a gator was spotted in The Windy City. In 2008, a gator was spotted in the Chicago River, and they were also spotted in both 1953 and 1902.

Source: Chicago Tribune