7-foot gator climbs out of storm drain in Bucktown: Report(picture)

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune ^ | 4/17/17 | Chelsea Brasted, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

[BBell]

You never know what lurks beneath a city, and doubly so when you live above a swamp.

But in a photo snapped by Steven Nicholson and posted to Twitter by WWL reporter Natalie Shepherd, there's no mystery: That is a seven-foot alligator climbing out of a storm drain.

[BBell]

He was probably just looking for a meal

Seven foot gator climbing out of a drain in Bucktown this afternoon... eyewitness viewer Steven Nicholson snapped the pic.

[deepestsouth1]

He is likely to become a meal.

[UCANSEE2]

Or luggage.

[AnalogReigns]

And where is Bucktown?

[boycott]

One of these got in my house today. He is gone now but I was terrified. I will have nightmares. I know it's not very manly of me but I don't like reptiles. All reptiles are ugly.

[henkster]

Looks more like an amphibian to me.

[Pentagon Leatherneck]

You’re afraid of a blutailed skink. Really?

TC

[KOZ.]

welp, there’s a bucktown in chicago...thankfully there’s another in nola :)

[Alas Babylon!]

Pull on that blue tail and it will come clean off a-wigglin’ while the rest of that skink skedaddles!

[2111USMC]

Strong little guy.

I’ll bet that storm grate weighs about 80 - 90 lbs.

[dezrat]

And where is Bucktown?

---

Metairie

[BBell]

Louisiana

[SeafoodGumbo]

It's part of Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. The location is right behind a school.

[mountn man]

And where is Bucktown?

Right behind Doetown.

[Patriot Babe]

Did this gator use a ladder. Isn’t there like a ladder leading up to the cover-hole?

[2111USMC]

There may not be a ladder.

The water table is so high in the New Orleans area that you can't really dig too deep before you hit water. (That's why their cemeteries have the burial vaults above ground.)

Even if there was a ladder, a sudden rain event could raise the water level high enough in the storm sewer that he could swim to the top rung.

[Joe 6-pack]

I live in south central LA. I tell my relatives the water level is so high I can go fishing in my yard with a post hole digger :)

[piasa]

That’s a juvenile Five Lined Skink- these beautiful lizards tat will eat all the nasty bugs around your foundation. Grew up playing with these things in Missouri.

[Covenantor]

Where dat ladder at?

[piasa]

Nope- it’s a reptile.

They will bite though they don’t hurt- it is just surprising when they do. You can let them latch onto your earlobes and they’ll stay there...redneck earrings.