THE ENTERPRISE (Beaumont, Texas) 13 June 08 Gator lurks in Mauriceville business district (Margaret Toal and Christine Rappleye)
Mauriceville: Eight-year-old Maleesa Potter knows about the gator living in the ditch beside Texas 62.
So do the other kids at Horizon Dance Studio, along with the carhops at the Sonic Drive-In next door. But when a game warden came Friday morning, the gator hightailed it into a concrete culvert
Game wardens will have to set a trap for the four-foot gator that has been wandering around in the heart of this small community's business district.
It's easy for the critter to hide. A wide, open drainage ditch runs along the highway by the dance studio with an overgrown field on the other side. A concrete culvert, about 12 feet wide, is under the drive to the studio. The culvert has thick horizontal bars across the round opening, but the space between the bars allows the alligator to lumber through.
Inside the culvert, it's dark and shady, with a few tadpoles swimming in the standing water. Green algae forms decorative patches. A musty odor seeps out, adding the final touch to a perfect reptilian condo.
Roxanne Potter, Maleesa's mother, thinks the gator has been hanging out since Hurricane Rita.
"He's been there quite a while," she said.
Springtime is alligator mating season and the larger males are on the move, encroaching on smaller alligators' territories and displacing them, said Amos Cooper, assistant area manager for the upper coast at the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area in Port Arthur.
He has seen alligators in swimming pools, ponds, ditches under people's porches and near garbage containers or other places they can forage for food.
They ended up in Drainage District No. 7 work sites last year and several make their homes in water hazards at the Palms on Pleasure Island golf course.
"They prefer rotting, smelly stuff (to eat), but they are very opportunistic," Cooper said.
If people live near water offering good alligator habitat, they are likely to see the alligators.
"People want to be close to nature, but don't think of alligators as part of nature," Cooper said.
People should stay away from any visiting alligators and shouldn't feed them. If they do, the gator will look at humans as a source for food, Cooper said.
To date, there haven't been any documented deaths related to alligators in Texas, Cooper said. Those injured typically are waterfowl hunters who unwittingly disturb a gator, Cooper said.
In Mauriceville, the alligator seems to like his turf.
Amber Amos at Sonic said she's seen the gator amble across the restaurant's parking lot, coming from the Market Basket grocery store.
"Everybody knows he's here," Nicole Meyne, another Sonic worker, said of the unusual neighbor.
Gator lurks in Mauriceville business district