On August 4, Erie, Penn., resident Stina Roach was swimming with her children and husband near the East Avenue boat launch when they saw something bobbing in the water. Small and dark in colour, it appeared to be the eye and snout of a baby alligator cresting the waves of Lake Erie, close to shore.
“I was kind of dumbfounded at first because I thought it was fake,” Roach says. “I got the kids out of the water, and then it was there. It was bobbing its head. It was going in and out. It was swimming there for a good hour, hour and a half.”
Roach’s husband, Jacob, recorded a video of the alligator. In the video, a tail can be seen flicking above the water, but the alligator remains relatively still. Roach estimates that it was about four to five feet long. In a comment on Facebook, Jacob said that he approached the alligator, and it appeared to dip under the water, emerging further away.
Roach contacted the local police who came down to have a look for themselves.
Afterwards, Roach posted the video along with some photos to Facebook. The post gained traction, causing minor hysteria. Media outlets around the world picked up the story and local authorities closed the beach. Throughout the rest of August, other residents claimed to have seen the alligator, posting grainy photos to Facebook.
Authorities brought in some experts from the local Reptile Expo, an exotic pet store. According to Stina, there was a rumour that they’d found some markings, but no other signs of the alligator. Without further hard evidence, the Great Lakes Commission wrote on its website: “Many people are starting to lose hope that the gator of Lake Erie will ever be captured or seen again. Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority officials said it has not confirmed any sightings of it but expressed hope that it is safe if it is still out there.”
The Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority, a government organization in charge of industrial, commercial, and recreational activities in the surrounding waters, declined to comment on any efforts being made to track the animal.
The lack of hard evidence comes as no surprise to reptile expert Bry Loyst. Loyst is the director of Canada’s Dinosaur Park, a non-profit reptile sanctuary that’s been operating near Peterborough, Ont., since 1998. The sanctuary is home to 22 alligators, previously owned as pets and then abandoned. Loyst spends a great deal of time with them. He also analyzes pictures for different government agencies to help identify species.
Based on Roach’s photos, Loyst says he’s 99 per cent sure that the alligator isn’t real. “It doesn’t appear to have any teeth, and it’s shiny like an alligator isn’t,” he says. “And the way it’s tilted in the water, it’s kind of tilted back a bit where its lip is raised out of the water.”
Loyst theorizes that it’s more likely a remote-controlled toy. “I would bet on it,” he says. They can easily be purchased online, and a quick Google search reveals countless videos of pranks using remote-controlled alligators and crocodiles.
If it is a real alligator, though, Loyst says there’s nothing to worry about from a public safety standpoint. “Even if it’s 10 feet long, it’s not going to hurt people,” he says. “If you go to Florida, there’s millions of alligators there. People go every year, and they never even see one. So, finding one here in Lake Erie, it’s worse than a needle in a haystack. It’s like a needle in 100 haystacks.”
If real, the alligator would most likely be an abandoned pet. It’s first instinct, Loyst says, would be to get out of Lake Erie’s waters. “It is so cold out there. Alligators stop eating and moving around at about 18°C,” he says. “If it was thrown into Lake Erie, the chances that it would stay in the water when it’s that cold are probably pretty slim.”
Even out of the water, Loyst says it’s unlikely the alligator would survive long in winter temperatures this far north. It’s not their habitat.
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