FREE PRESS (Kinston, N Carolina) 03 June 05 12-foot Gator removed from Sneads Ferry (Roselee Papandrea)
Sneads Ferry: Each night, Mike Gallagher rakes the sand smooth in front of his home on CCC Road.
That's how he can tell if an alligator, which has taken up residence in a nearby pond, crosses the dirt road at night.
Gallagher, who is chief of the Sneads Ferry Volunteer Fire Department, has kept his eye on that gator since he first spotted it on May 26 in a ditch by his driveway. He's worried the reptile might harm young children and pets in the neighborhood.
"It's coming out at night, and cats are missing, and everybody is afraid for their kids to come out," said Gallagher who has a 3-year-old son who likes to play outside.
The alligator, estimated to be 10-feet-long and between 300 and 400 pounds, lives in a small pond across from Gallagher's home. The pond, which is about 15 feet by 40 feet, is hidden in trees and vegetation. The Sneads Ferry Senior Citizen Center is on the back side of the pond.
Gallagher has gone to the water at night with a flashlight and believes there are a male and a female. He worries the female will build a nest and wonders what they'll do if they run out of food.
"The closest body of water to this pond is about a mile and a half away," Gallagher said. "When it runs out of food there, it's going to start looking for food in people's yards. I don't think this thing is just going to go away."
But in an area where alligators are common, how could anybody tell?
Around 8:30 a.m. Thursday, local law enforcement and state wildlife officials were called to the Auto Clinic on Sugar Lane in Sneads Ferry. A 12-foot, 500-pound, "healthy looking" American gator lay skulking in a pile of metal and scrapped car parts, said Sgt. C.F. Smith, with the N.C. Wildlife Commission.
"It was a nice one," said Smith, who's in charge of enforcement in Onslow, Lenoir, Jones and eastern Pender counties.
The Wildlife Commission's biologist at the scene, Robbie Norville, estimated its age at 50 to 70 years. Its gender wasn't determined, he said.
With the help of two deputies from the Onslow County Sheriff's Department, Smith and Norville lassoed the beast and, using a truck for propulsion, carefully dragged it about 20 feet away from the metal heap, Smith said. At that point, he added, it executed a "death roll," an instinctive spasm of sorts employed by an alligator to overpower its prey.
"When we got him out and got him blindfolded, we jumped right on him to put some weight on him," Smith said.
To protect themselves and the gator, the two wildlife officials then secured the gator's jaws, and its front and rear legs, Smith said. They then heaved it onto the truck, taxied it a "suitable habitat not far from Sneads Ferry" and released it, he said.
"To me, (this alligator) is a valuable resource that shows the natural history of the state," Smith said. "Here's this big icon, in my opinion, of natural history right here (in Sneads Ferry)."
Norville concurred.
"Quite a critter," he said. "The largest I've ever moved - and I've moved lots of gators."
Smith said he wouldn't assume that the alligator captured and relocated Thursday is the same one that's been hanging around CCC Road, which is about a half-mile away.
"If it is, it is," Smith said, "but we're not looking at it that way.
"There are several alligators in that area."
What about children?
Joe Vecchione, who also lives on CCC Road, is concerned about the safety of the neighborhood children. Vecchione called agents with N.C. Wildlife last week to see if the alligators could be moved to another location.
There isn't a whole lot the N.C. Wildlife Commission can do about alligators because they're considered an endangered species, Smith said.
"They are not to be killed, harmed or harassed in any way," Smith said.
Wildlife agents get involved only if the alligator is in danger or if it poses "an immediate threat to human safety," Smith said - criteria apparently met Thursday.
When people started going to the pond near CCC Road to look for the alligator, Gallagher decided to put up red "danger zone" tape as a warning. But it hasn't stopped anyone from showing up to take a look. Instead, it made the area a "tourist attraction," Gallagher said.
That's part of the problem, Smith said. While he understands why homeowners might have concerns, the best thing residents can do is leave an alligator alone.
"If you are concerned with an alligator in your neighborhood, the best thing to do is to stay away from it," Smith said.
No one in North Carolina has ever been attacked by an alligator that wasn't provoked, Smith said, and he advised people to never feed them.
"Most of the time alligators become a problem when people interact with an alligator in ways that they shouldn't by feeding them or taunting them," Smith said. "That's normally where the problems start."
Anyone who has concerns about alligators in their neighborhood can report them to the N.C. Wildlife Commission at (800) 662-7137.
12-foot Gator removed from Sneads Ferry