Crazy croc Syndrome!

It is interesting to note there is a term for what has happened.

The appearance of alligators and crocodiles in areas far from their native habitat is known in Forteana as the crazy croc syndrome or the crazy crocs. It is a problem which goes back many years see here:

Fortean Historical Archive: Out Of Place Alligators

Another clutch of incidents was in 2005:

2005 has been a bumper year for crazy croc incidents, with reports from areas as diverse as South Seattle, Wash., Rehoboth, Mass. and Charleston, West Virginia... (Editor's Comment: We've had isolated crazy croc sightings in the USA before. Fortean researcher Loren Coleman has documented hundreds of them dating back to the early 1930s. But, to my knowledge, this is the first sustained crazy croc flap we've ever had, with sightings every week.)

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Another incident in 2005 was in Cyprus - "Wildlife workers in Cyprus are trying to verify reports that crocodiles may be on the loose at a popular tourist nature spot after they became too dangerous for their owner to handle."

"The reptiles are believed to have been smuggled in to the eastern Mediterranean island, where crocodiles do not breed and the closest nature cousin is the innocuous chameleon."

This is the fourth report in three weeks about out-of-place crocodiles or alligators turning up in areas far from their natural habitat.

Chris Fleming's Unknown Magazine

Another interesting sighting was an Alligator in Maine in September 2000 a pretty unseasonable time one would have thought:

OUT-OF-PLACE ALLIGATOR SNAPS AT A MAN IN KENNEBUNKPORT, MAINE

One of the weirdest Fortean phenomena is the "Crazy Croc syndrome," the sudden and unexplained appearance of alligators in places far from their natural habitat.

Just such an incident occurred last week in Kennebunkport, Maine (population 1,200), a seaside resort town on Route 9 located about 26 miles (40 kilometers) south of Portland.

(Editor's Note: The Bush family mansion, summer home of former President George Herbert Walker Bush, and his son, Gov. George W. Bush, the current Republican Party candidate for USA president, is located on Walker's Point in Kennebunkport.)

(Editor's Comment: Cue spooky organ music...) "An alligator that nipped at a man's trousers was likely someone's pet that was set free, police said."

"William Sartry shot the 31-inch-reptile dead. He said the alligator approached him while he was walking around a pond in his back yard."

"'You're going to think I'm nuts,' Sarty told a police dispatcher when he reported the incident." (See USA Today for September 20, 2000, "Maine," page 6A.) from

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