DAILY BREEZE (Los Angeles, California) 16 August 05 Gator Watch Day V: Experts will try in to capture reptile - Exotic Wildlife, a Colorado company, will search for the reptile in Harbor Regional Park's lake. (Donna Littlejohn)

A Colorado company specializing in caimans will join the effort today to try to capture the mysterious alligator-like reptile that has been eluding captors for four days in Machado Lake at Harbor Regional Park.

Exotic Wildlife company representatives were scheduled to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport early this morning and meet with city officials before starting work, said Ron Berkowitz, Los Angeles Recreation and Parks superintendent for the Harbor Area.

"They have 27 years of experience," Berkowitz said. "I researched companies and they appear to be reliable and dependable."

Company officials told the city if they do not capture the animal within two days and nights, they will continue working for free, according to Berkowitz.

With unusually cool temperatures and overcast skies, the animal spent most of the day Monday in seclusion, popping up briefly at about 5 p.m. and floating near the surface for less than a minute, followed by another appearance an hour later.

"The main difficulty is that this animal is responsive to the weather and it's been cool," said city park ranger Albert Torres.

Accustomed to warmer weather, they aren't as active when the temperatures drop. High temperatures were reported in the mid-70s in the South Bay on Monday.

Jim Grizzell of the Southwestern Herpetologists Society said optimum daytime temperatures for the animal are closer to around 90 degrees.

"Their activity is controlled a lot by temperature," he said. "When it gets cooler they go into a stupor or even hibernation. If it gets too warm, they also disappear."

Volunteer reptile experts from the Herpetologists Society have been overseeing the search and capture effort, throwing out raw chicken and other bait to try to coax the animal out of hiding.

With 53 acres of lake and a normally shy animal able to remain submerged underwater for hours at a time, the task hasn't been easy. Authorities have said it could be several days before the reptile, estimated to be about 5 feet long, is caught.

The lake and shoreline have been closed to visitors to the park on the Harbor City-Wilmington border since reports of an alligator-type animal were confirmed Friday afternoon.

But that hasn't stopped scores of sight-seers, many with binoculars and lawn chairs, some with children and pet dogs in tow, from coming out to catch a glimpse of the beast.

Waiting television news crews resorted to filming and interviewing spectators Monday as the reptile was nowhere to be seen for most of the day.

Authorities believe the animal is a caiman, indigenous to Central and South America and described as an "extremely adaptable species" on an Animal Planet Web site. They typically avoid human contact.

Caimans are part of the crocodilian family and are smaller than alligators. But with razor-sharp, inch-long teeth, they are still considered dangerous.

"They're generally shy and retiring. They see humans as a threat to them. But I'd be concerned about a child or something like that" getting too close, reptile expert Grizzell said. "They're very dangerous to handle."

The animal's closing jaw muscles are strong, he said. "The other thing (captors) have got to worry about is that tail."

Caimans, Grizzell said, can grow to be as long as 10 or 12 feet and are fast-moving.

"They can grab hands," he said.

Captors will try to get the animal up on shore using a noose, working with floodlights through the night, Berkowitz said.

Once caught, the animal will be transported to the Los Angeles Zoo.

Park officials believe the caiman was probably an exotic pet that was abandoned in the city lake after it became too big.

While official reports of the animal were made public Friday, a Torrance woman said she called the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks to report it more than a month ago.

Tammy Thompson, who works at a Harbor City company about a block away from Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, said she was surprised when news stories surfaced over the weekend about the animal, assuming that officials had already taken care of the situation.

"It kind of bothers me that no one did anything about it," said Thompson, a secretary for Applied Business Concepts. "That thing is big -- big. Kids fish right there in the shore and someone could have been hurt."

Hahn has asked for an investigation into the department's policy on how such reports are handled.

"There have been alligator sightings out there, so we're not really sure how long he's been in there," Hahn said. "For a long time, I think people thought it was an urban legend. Once it was confirmed (Friday), we mobilized to catch it."

Torres said reports received by the rangers, a division of Recreation and Parks, are acted upon immediately.

"I heard the report (for the first time) at 2 p.m. Friday and it took me four minutes to decide I'd better get over there," he said.

"Definitely when we get these kinds of reports we respond. I always hope our reporting system works."

The department has a 24-hour emergency dispatch line -- 323-913-7390 -- that people can call to report information, he said.

Thompson said she called the department's regular Harbor City office July 14 and spoke to someone who said he passed on the information to the department's downtown headquarters.

"They took our report," Thompson said. "Maybe they didn't believe us, I don't know. But something should have been done. It's not right."

Thompson said her co-worker, David Wade, first saw the reptile on his lunch hour July 7. Thompson said she and construction workers at the boathouse also saw the animal the next day.

With children playing in the shallow water that day, Thompson said, "I told everyone along the shoreline to get out of the water, there's an alligator in the lake. Some people looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn't want to see anybody getting hurt."
Gator Watch Day V: Experts will try in to capture reptile

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