EXPRESS-NEWS (San Antonio, Texas) 30 April 07 Wayward gator grips traffic (Vianna Davila)
The beast in the highway wasn't budging.
While scores of motorists sat stuck — with all eastbound lanes of Loop 410 blocked — at least 10 officers and one game warden spent an hour Sunday morning poking, prodding and even lassoing an 8-foot-long alligator that had wandered onto the road on the city's South Side.
Although alligators are native to Texas and known to sometimes inhabit inland bodies of water, the incident was unusual "because we've never had one go into a public road," said State Game Warden David Chavez, who believes the alligator makes its home in Mitchell Lake, just south of Loop 410. He couldn't guess how the alligator ended up there.
But before Chavez arrived, officers came up with creative ways of their own to push the alligator off the road.
They tried to scare it by turning on their police sirens. When that didn't work, they tried to soothe it when one officer briefly sang the gator a lullaby over his police car loudspeaker.
When they threw rubber traffic cones at its head, the gator easily caught them in its jaws and thrashed his head before flinging the orange objects to the ground like fresh kill — a swift reminder of how powerful alligators can be.
They can exert a pressure of around 300 pounds per square inch when closing their jaws, Chavez said. They can sprint with the speed of a horse, though their short, stubby legs eventually slow them down.
Texas Game Warden David Chavez, with help from San Antonio police officers, uses a pole and a rope to guide an alligator back into Mitchell Lake, which they think is its home.
Eventually, with the help of metal poles that a passing construction worker stopped to lend them, officers managed to push the animal off the highway and drove it down a steep, grassy embankment and then across an access road.
Then like a sea monster from the deep, the alligator slowly submerged in a shallow drainage ditch that feeds into the lake.
The giant reptile lay low there, letting out an occasional hiss — a sign that its lungs were deflating — and kept an eye on the small crowd of officers and media watching its every move.
Officer Albert Silva was in his police cruiser earlier Sunday when drivers flagged him down, saying there was a "problem" walking along the road between Zarzamora and Moursund roads and it was stopping traffic.
When Silva, who thought he was responding to a wreck, arrived and saw the problem had a lashing tail and was covered in scales, he quickly radioed for backup.
"I don't remember any of this in the academy," Silva said as he stood watching the animal bide its time in the drainage ditch. "As far as I know, there's no procedure on this other than: 'Don't get bit.'"
"Anyway you could get it off the road without seriously harming it" is appropriate, according to Chavez, who recommended throwing a blanket over the reptile's eyes.
Because the alligator was not considered an "immediate threat" — though officers would have been within their rights to shoot it if it lunged at them — the game warden left the gator alone.
An online Texas Parks and Wildlife handbook, which also outlines various gator recipes and ways to tan its hide, states, "As with all wild animals, alligators should be treated with respect."
Sunday's was at least the second gator sighting within the city limits in the past year: In May 2006, residents of the East Side community Lakeside Park found a local celebrity in the form of an alligator they nicknamed Scooter, after he was spotted in a neighborhood pond.
San Antonio Parks and Recreation officials never could catch Scooter, despite the temptation of a few chickens and plenty of local attention.
Texas state law protects alligators, although they can be hunted from April 1 thru June 30 in all but 22 counties. Hunters with a valid license may kill one alligator per year.
"Usually they're very docile," Chavez said. "They keep to themselves. They don't go out looking for trouble."
He cautioned against approaching them and advised anyone who comes across one of the creatures to contact local authorities.
"We usually leave them in their natural habitat," Chavez said.
On Sunday, after much yelling and more prodding, the gator finally swam underneath the floodgate, perhaps bound for the calm of Mitchell Lake, disappearing beneath the water's surface and showing only the sharp of ridges of its tail.
Throughout the ordeal, the animal never harmed any living thing.
But it did manage to leave his mark: It took a chunk out of the back and front bumper of a police car.
That incident will be considered "damage to city property," according to an evidence technician at the scene.
Wayward gator grips traffic