Reptile & Amphibian Forums

DAILY BREEZE (Torrence, California) 23 August 05 'Alligator Jay' nets celebrity status with adventures at park - Colorado's Jay Young may not have caught the Machado Lake reptile, but he put on a good show. (Donna Littlejohn)
With his cowboy swagger and black leather safari hat adorned with alligator teeth, "Alligator Jay" Young became an immediate sensation with the crowds of people who turned out last week to watch his marathon, 42-hour search-and-rescue mission trying to find Machado Lake's biggest reptile.
In the end, he didn't catch his alligator. But the action-packed and sometimes chaotic wild-man performance he put on galvanized the throngs of people who came to the park with their cameras to watch.
Can a television deal be far behind?
Young, a Colorado alligator wrestler by profession, was surrounded by fans asking for autographs and children wanting to pose for pictures with the "alligator man" when he took occasional breaks in the Harbor Area park. The TV cameras loved him.
Spectators whooped and applauded at some of his heroics (the lake's foul pollution and bacteria levels alone were enough to make most locals shudder at the risk Young was taking). And the 31-year-old alligator wrangler's stock of witty sound bites didn't hurt, either.
Did he have any scars?
Of course he had scars, he quipped, he'd been married to a redhead for eight years.
How often has he been bitten?
By alligators or people?
For two days and nights, Young and his long-haired partner, Paul Wertz, put on a real-life reality show searching for L.A.'s celebrity alligator.
The rugged pair splashed and swam and sloshed through the murky water up to their chins. They plunged barefoot through thick vegetation and lakeside muck. They paddled in canoes and dragged a huge fishing net across the 53-acre lake, dredging up only mud, a water bottle, crayfish and a tennis shoe -- along with a ripped net.
After the sun went down and the park's resident buzzing mosquitoes filled the air in thick clouds, they worked into the pre-dawn hours, cruising the lake's surface on a boat with spotlights and snare poles.
In the end, Young couldn't capture his prey.
But he may have lassoed much bigger game with the Los Angeles media splash surrounding the wacky story: He's now fielding television offers and calls from industry types looking to represent him.
"Agents are calling me," Young confirmed Monday in a telephone interview from Colorado.
Will he bite?
"I'm thinking about it," he said. "We're planning some meetings."
If he had television aspirations before -- and many believe that he did -- Young surely struck gold with the widespread media exposure that erupted over the Harbor Area's great alligator hunt.
"We'll never see him again," predicted Ron Berkowitz, the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks official who hired Young. "He'll say, 'Ron who?' "
That Young didn't land the pesky reptile in the end didn't seem to matter to many spectators. He put on a darn good show.
On Monday, he was back home near Mosca, Colo., working at his family's alligator farm and reptile park where he stars in alligator wrestling shows twice a day and helps run the tourist attraction.
But it was hardly business as usual. MSNBC, he said, was coming by that afternoon for a live interview.
'Alligator Jay' nets celebrity status with adventures at park

>>DAILY BREEZE (Torrence, California) 23 August 05 'Alligator Jay' nets celebrity status with adventures at park - Colorado's Jay Young may not have caught the Machado Lake reptile, but he put on a good show. (Donna Littlejohn)
>>With his cowboy swagger and black leather safari hat adorned with alligator teeth, "Alligator Jay" Young became an immediate sensation with the crowds of people who turned out last week to watch his marathon, 42-hour search-and-rescue mission trying to find Machado Lake's biggest reptile.
>>In the end, he didn't catch his alligator. But the action-packed and sometimes chaotic wild-man performance he put on galvanized the throngs of people who came to the park with their cameras to watch.
>>Can a television deal be far behind?
>>Young, a Colorado alligator wrestler by profession, was surrounded by fans asking for autographs and children wanting to pose for pictures with the "alligator man" when he took occasional breaks in the Harbor Area park. The TV cameras loved him.
>>Spectators whooped and applauded at some of his heroics (the lake's foul pollution and bacteria levels alone were enough to make most locals shudder at the risk Young was taking). And the 31-year-old alligator wrangler's stock of witty sound bites didn't hurt, either.
>>Did he have any scars?
>>Of course he had scars, he quipped, he'd been married to a redhead for eight years.
>>How often has he been bitten?
>>By alligators or people?
>>For two days and nights, Young and his long-haired partner, Paul Wertz, put on a real-life reality show searching for L.A.'s celebrity alligator.
>>The rugged pair splashed and swam and sloshed through the murky water up to their chins. They plunged barefoot through thick vegetation and lakeside muck. They paddled in canoes and dragged a huge fishing net across the 53-acre lake, dredging up only mud, a water bottle, crayfish and a tennis shoe -- along with a ripped net.
>>After the sun went down and the park's resident buzzing mosquitoes filled the air in thick clouds, they worked into the pre-dawn hours, cruising the lake's surface on a boat with spotlights and snare poles.
>>In the end, Young couldn't capture his prey.
>>But he may have lassoed much bigger game with the Los Angeles media splash surrounding the wacky story: He's now fielding television offers and calls from industry types looking to represent him.
>>"Agents are calling me," Young confirmed Monday in a telephone interview from Colorado.
>>Will he bite?
>>"I'm thinking about it," he said. "We're planning some meetings."
>>If he had television aspirations before -- and many believe that he did -- Young surely struck gold with the widespread media exposure that erupted over the Harbor Area's great alligator hunt.
>>"We'll never see him again," predicted Ron Berkowitz, the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks official who hired Young. "He'll say, 'Ron who?' "
>>That Young didn't land the pesky reptile in the end didn't seem to matter to many spectators. He put on a darn good show.
>>On Monday, he was back home near Mosca, Colo., working at his family's alligator farm and reptile park where he stars in alligator wrestling shows twice a day and helps run the tourist attraction.
>>But it was hardly business as usual. MSNBC, he said, was coming by that afternoon for a live interview.
>>'Alligator Jay' nets celebrity status with adventures at park