SCOTTSDALE REPUBLIC (Arizona) 11 August 06 McCormick Ranch's alligator captured (Kate Nolan)
Scottsdale: Wildlife experts captured a 34-inch alligator Thursday at a Scottsdale golf course.
Unlike false reports of a gator that drew crowds to Mesa in June, this one was for real.
On Saturday, a golfer reported seeing a 3 1/2-foot-long alligator in a lake at McCormick Ranch Golf Club, 7505 E. McCormick Parkway. advertisement
Experts had confirmed the sighting but had trimmed the size a bit. Russ Johnson, who heads the Phoenix Herpetological Society and had searched since Saturday for the gator with biologists from the Arizona Game and Fish Department, initially estimated its length at 16 to 18 inches. Once it was caught, he realized that he had mistaken a back leg for the tail.
Johnson was skeptical of searching at first, having been involved in the "Loch Ness" gator search at Mesa's La Valencia Apartments.
"After the La Valencia fiasco, I wasn't going to be too excited," Johnson said. "But we went down and swam around Saturday and got a good look at it."
After seeing the reptile face to face about 20 times, he identified it as an Alligator mississippiensis, or American alligator.
Johnson speculated that someone who "got worried" probably released the animal. It is illegal to keep alligators.
Johnson and biologists at first tried to rely on nets and metal traps in Scottsdale. Eventually the golf course started draining the lake and Johnson's volunteers caught the animal by hand.
Johnson estimated the gator at about 3 1/2 years old. Alligators grow a foot a year and can reach 18 feet long.
McCormick Ranch's alligator captured