Current Crazy Croc Encounter - Out of place Alligators in the states

Current Crazy Croc Encounter

What is that thing in Hickory Lake?

Chad Arment has passed along updates on a 2 to 3 ft long crocodilian being sighted and photographed in Hickory Lake, North Carolina. Seen for a week now (since Mother’s Day, May 11, 2008), it remains uncaught.

Another link at CrytoMundo was to a story about a new species of ancient croc found as a fossil which was in the news in late March:

New Prehistoric Crocodilian

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.)

Source

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

Source

Frozen alligators

Its a week since the croc was seen. Is it dead? Quite possibly but there is at least one species which could survive a Welsh spring the famous American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) my research has revealed. The alligator is found mainly in the Southern part of North America they range from the coastal border of North Carolina and Virginia, south to Florida and west to east Texas:

American alligators hibernate during the winter in burrows (or "dens") that they construct, but may occasionally emerge during brief spells of warmer weather.
Alligators do not feed during the cooler months. Studies in captivity have shown that alligators generally begin to lose their appetite below 27°C (80°F), and stop feeding altogether below 23°C (73°F). They can easily last the winter on their energy reserves.
Adult alligators can survive freezing conditions if they are in water. They submerge their body but keep their nostrils projecting above the water surface, so that when the surface freezes they can still breathe (called the "icing response"). Essentially their upper body becomes trapped in the ice. However, occasionally alligators may be trapped completely below ice, and have been known to survive for over 8 hours without taking a breath, because the freezing water slows their metabolic rate down to very low levels. Yet another example of their amazing ability to survive. Crocodilian Species - American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)

Another discussion at from the Everglades National Park factsheet:

"Alligators are cold-blooded, which means that their body temperatures fluctuate in response to the temperature of their surroundings. An advantage of being cold-blooded is that little energy needs to be spent in maintaining a high body temperature, and therefore less food is needed. A healthy alligator can go many months without food. Alligators can survive in water temperatures as cold as 36°F (2°C) and as warm as 98°F (38°C), however they function best within a relatively narrow range of temperatures." Formerly www.nps.gov/ever/eco/gator.htm

As for Caimans little info seems to be available.