Posted on 08/06/2024 11:39:24 AM PDT by Red Badger
CHESTER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is on the lookout for an alligator after multiple people reported seeing one on Crockery Lake in northeastern Ottawa County over the weekend.
“They do show up from time to time in Michigan waterways, so we’re not surprised,” DNR Lt. Gerald Thayer said. “Typically,when we see stuff like this, it’s somebody who maybe went down south and found a baby alligator and it was nice, cute and small. But as they got home and, in an aquarium, it kind of started to outgrow things. Maybe it became a little bit nippy when they were trying to feed it. And they certainly don’t want to put it down, that would make them feel bad, of course, so they end up releasing it into the waterways.”
A sign at Crockery Lake warns people of an unconfirmed alligator sighting. (Aug. 5, 2024) A sign at Crockery Lake warns people of an unconfirmed alligator sighting. (Aug. 5, 2024) Sharon Vandevrede, who lives on the lakefront, told News 8 that her family first spotted the 4.5-foot reptile on July 25.
“My husband called me into our three-season porch here and said, ‘You got to see this,’” she said. “I said, ‘I can’t. I’m late.’ He goes, ‘No, come out here. You’re not going to believe this; I think I see an alligator.’”
Vandevrede said the alligator hung out just off the shoreline in the sandy part of their yard, swimming back and forth in the shallows. But when her husband walked down to the water to get a closer look and snap a photo, it retreated into the deeper parts of the lake.
“I said, ‘I can’t imagine there’s an alligator in our lake.’ I said, ‘We can’t tell anybody. People are going to think we’re two crazy old people out here looking at alligators in our lake,’” she said.
But as more reports of the alligator trickle in, Vandevrede said, “Wow. We’re not crazy. We did see one.”
Tyler Heitzman and his family hopped on their pontoon Monday to join what now appears to be a local hunt.
“Based off of all the buddies I have in a group chat who all think they’re experts because they watch (alligator hunting reality show) ‘Swamp People,’ they say watch for the shallows,” he said.
He brought his kids and mom with him to hunt for the gator.
“None of (the kids) can swim because we’re not going in until they get it,” Heitzman’s mom Georgia Kaywood said.
She added she was a little nervous because “we watched ‘Lake Placid’ last night.”
The movie is about a huge crocodile terrorizing lakegoers.
The DNR said it will continue to monitor the situation. Thayer added that alligators aren’t typically aggressive toward humans, do he did recommend people avoid contact with the gator if they spot it.
“We don’t think there’s a public safety issue here, but again, you never can be too safe,” he said. “We don’t recommend that you swim up to it or boating up to it and (if) you see it, you try to reach in and pet it — that would be a bad idea.”
Michigan?....................
Won't be there next Summer...
“Spy alligator”?
I was expecting this story to be about a remote control alligator drone!
They survived the Ice Ages.
Gators will burrow deep into the bank and go into a hibernate-like state. If it’s below the frost line they can survive........................
Well, it is in Crockery Lake...............
Otherwise, +90% percent of the gator's time will be spent on the bank sunning.
A Michigan lake isn’t the Louisiana Bayou. Michigan frost line is 42”, and our lakes don’t have mud banks.
Alligators are cold blooded reptiles that can hibernate and since it was 4.5 feet long, unless it was that long when thrown in, must have survived at least one winter.
The Gator Nation is everywhere!
“Mom told me to get rid of it, I got rid of it.” — smart-assed kid
Snowbird gator....summers in the north, winters in the south.
They’re a pain in the ass but they do bring revenue to the state.
The commute must be a bitch.
Somebody going to get nice pair of shoes out of the problem and maybe a hand bag for the little woman.
Gators in Michigan?
Call Greta Thunberg! Her moment may have arrived!
Oh hell no. Time to employ the three Ss.
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