Posted on 02/10/2017 1:48:20 PM PST by nickcarraway
An alligator in a South Carolina neighborhood has been nicknamed "Rusty" and the "Trump-a-gator" due to its unusual orange color.
The alligator, estimated at 4-5 feet long, has become famous on social media after local residents photographed it swimming in the retention ponds at Tanner Plantation in Hanahan.
Herpetologist Josh Zalabak offered one possible explanation for the unusual coloring of the reptile.
"Algae -- maybe some pollutant in the water, but it's hard to say unless the water is tested," Zalabak told WCBD-TV.
Jay Butfiloski, the state Department of Natural Resources' Alligator Program coordinator, said the color is likely tied to wherever the alligator has been spending its winter months.
"[It] might be iron oxide [rust] that has discolored it," he told WCSC-TV. "It may be using a rusty steel culvert pipe."
Butfiloski said the coloration could also be due to a high iron content in the pond. He said similarly colored alligators have been reported in the area in the past.
Locals have nicknamed the vermilion reptile "Rusty" or the "Trump-a-gator."
Might be iron, but looks like a general lack of dark pigments - like those blue or yellow lobsters you see from time to time.
Sooner or later ... orange!
I think it’s in celebration of Clemson’s National Championship....
His first name should be Clockwork.
Trump reference aside, that think looks awesome!
Making bitin’ people on the butt great again!
Cook with a little cinnamon and I’ll be he tastes like Alligator Pumpkin....
By looking at his Twitter account, the author is obsessive about Trump...and really shouldn't be commenting on people's looks.
Reminds me more of John Boehner.
Since it is Florida, maybe he is a relative of Charlie Crist, another Republican (?) Orange-American.
“oOOOOH. Scary!”
I call the first set of boots made out of that gator.
That would be called “FENNEY”, as in I FENNEY the first boots out of that gator! FENNEY means you have the first DIBS!! For any millennials, that means they are MINE!!!
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