Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Bah, News -I didn't "offer gator a home" - But they did a pretty good job with everything else, and kept thier misquotes to a minimum - Im "Alan" BTW - Its part of my long name, and I didn't think that "Raven" would bolster as much confidance in my public image, yadda yadda...

The news crew was friendly and responsive, and didnt make a huge mess out of the story, so Im actually plensently supprised with everyone whos been involved in this mess so far -

http://www.pennlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1058866732310440.xml?pennnews

BY FORD TURNER
Of The Patriot-News

Good home promised to elusive gator

If any creature around Italian Lake should be afraid, it's the alligator.

That's the opinion Alan Archambault gave yesterday as he affectionately stroked a different gator -- the five-footer that sleeps near the head of his bed.

Archambault of Harrisburg, a self-taught wildlife educator, illustrator and rescuer, has closely followed the city's attempts to capture a small alligator living in Italian Lake. In fact, Archambault grabbed the lake gator Friday night, but the creature escaped.

It's only a baby, he says.

He wants to protect it.

"That gator is within the food chain range of raccoons, snapping turtles, herons. There are a lot of things that could catch it," said Archambault, who has given animal presentations at Olewine Nature Center in Wildwood Lake Sanctuary.

"I am worried for the animal's sake, honestly. There are plenty of unscrupulous people out there, just like the people who dumped him out there. They might throw something at him or hit him."

He keeps four animals scientifically classified as "crocodilians" in his bedroom. They include a five-foot American alligator and three caimans, which are similar in appearance to crocodiles.

The big gator stays in a pen separated from the head of Archambault's bed by a wire screen. A pump and filter system keeps the small pond in the pen full of fresh water.

Archambault lays the 55-pound "Osceola" across his lap with the tenderness of a mother handling a baby.

At his home, he also has 35 birds and a number of turtles.

"I take in exotic animals people have dumped," he said. "The big caiman was from a drug bust. A little caiman was from a pet shop owner who got sick of it."

Archambault has given advice to Fred Lamke, the city animal control officer leading the effort to catch the Italian Lake alligator.

Lamke has been frustrated so far.

Yesterday, he again discovered that "bait stations" he had set to trap the gator had been vandalized.

Lamke has used chicken-baited hooks dangled at various points on the lake. He and a large contingent of assistants have swept the lake by boat and on shore, hoping to snare the alligator. Lamke also has employed floating turtle traps.

Although many people have seen the alligator and Archambault has touched it, Lamke's efforts have been unsuccessful.

On a positive note, Lamke said he has gathered much good information from Archambault and others knowledgeable about alligators.

For one thing, he said, the alligator is so small that it probably is not a threat to ducks, let alone humans. It probably will be content to feed on minnows and small fish, Lamke said.

Also, he said, the presence of humans may be discouraging the alligator from a natural inclination to climb out of the water.

Should the creature still be in the lake when temperatures drop in October, he said, it will be more likely to climb out and sun itself in an attempt to raise its body temperature.

Archambault, Lamke said, has been helpful and seemed "genuinely concerned about the gator."

Archambault said, "I want to get him out of the lake and make sure he is cared for in a good home."

FORD TURNER: 255-8486 or fturner@patriot-news.com

Crikey! An alligator lurks in Italian Lake

Friday, July 18, 2003

BY FORD TURNER
Of The Patriot-News

It's down there somewhere, they say.

Lurking silently below the surface of the murky water.

Eyeing, perhaps, the pedaling orange feet of unsuspecting ducks.

Ignoring, perhaps, the chicken-baited hooks intended to end its freedom.

It is the creature of Italian Lake.

At the placid, sun-splashed lake just north of Division Street in Harrisburg yesterday, a small alligator was being sought by city authorities. Or, more precisely, by animal control officer Fred Lamke.

"This is a little guy, not capable of much damage. Two to 3 feet," Lamke said.

Several people have reported seeing the gator recently, including a uniformed police officer and a television news camera operator. Lamke, in consultation with alligator experts in Florida, has set two "bait stations" in an attempt to catch the animal.

Lamke said this is the first alligator he has dealt with in 13 years of city animal control.

At lakeside yesterday, gatormania appeared to be taking hold.

John Mau of Susquehanna Twp. swept the water near the shore with a 5-foot-long fishing net his mother bought at Kmart earlier in the day. Mau said he hoped to catch a companion for the 10-inch gator he had at home.

Groups of kids, some antsy-looking and some bold, roamed close to the edge of the water, looking out over the lake.

Eight-year-old Rushawn Johnson claimed he had already made one sighting earlier in the day.

"It had big eyeballs like this," he said, cupping his hands atop his head, "and little bumpy things going down its back."

David Cooper, 12, said a friend of his had seen the creature. Only the eyes were above water.

Roz Silverman has lived close to the lake for 30 years. She said it was the first time she heard an official report of an alligator there.

But last year, she said, her grandson claimed he saw one. At the time, she said, she did not believe him.

"Maybe he was right," she said yesterday.

The first Italian Lake alligator reports to reach Lamke came in March and were not entirely reliable. He went into action this week, after he got more reports.

They included several reliable ones, and another that Lamke described with some doubt in his voice. A woman who refused to identify herself, he said, claimed she had been chased by the gator.

Lamke saw the animal himself on Wednesday.

He said, "The size he is now, he is not a public safety threat. If we felt that way, we would shut the whole lake down."

Lamke's plan of action centers on bluefish hooks baited with chicken. They are set at the two spots where the most gator sightings have occurred -- near a water outlet structure at the lake's southern end, and off the arched, red-railed bridge at its center.

On Wednesday, Lamke baited the hooks with entire chicken breasts. He later was advised by Florida experts to use just enough chicken to cover the hooks.

At mid-afternoon yesterday, the raw chicken suspended from the bridge swung gently back and forth in the sunshine. It had attracted a cluster of flies.

Lamke could not say how the alligator arrived in the lake. Someone, he said, may have thrown it in after tiring of it as a pet. Should it be captured, the state Game Commission would be consulted because it has jurisdiction over all wildlife, he said.

After 13 years of confronting dogs, cats, skunks, raccoons, snakes, and even a few bears, Lamke appeared intrigued by his first alligator pursuit.

"Great," he said. "Harrisburg has its own Loch Ness story."

FORD TURNER: 255-8486 or fturner@patriot-news.com

http://www.pennlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/105869388618480.xml?pennnews

CRIKEY! AN ITALIAN LAKE UPDATE

Sunday, July 20, 2003

The small alligator calling Italian Lake home continues to elude its potential captors, but a boy from Linglestown spotted the creature just after 6 p.m. yesterday.

Jesse Thomas, 12, said his mother had brought him and his buddy, Cody Wills, to the lake to see if they could spot the alligator.

He said they didn't really expect to see it. But they did.

"It was cool," he said.

A small crowd had gathered on the north side of the long, narrow lake to check out the 'gator, who was lolling among the lily pads about 12 feet from shore.

Some tossed small stones and chunks of weed in the reptile's direction. It obligingly snapped at the offerings.

"He's just a little thing," said one young woman.

"How are they gonna catch a little thing like that?" asked another.

The looked to be under 2 feet in length.

"They've been saying it was 2 or 3 feet long," said a middle-aged man in the crowd. "Maybe there's more than one."

Alana Drayton, 16, said she had stood on a bridge at the lake last year when her father pointed out something big moving through the water.

"I didn't get a real good look at it," she said. She held her hands about 3 feet apart and said it was about that long. "I can tell you it was big enough to make me say it was time to get out of there."

Fred Lemke, the city's animal control officer, said the alligator remained free yesterday. He said he and others continue to see the alligator along the surface of the water from time to time during the day, but never long enough to try to catch it.

"He's pretty shy, and he's smart," Lemke said.

Friday night, volunteers searching the lake grabbed the creature, but it slipped through their fingers.

Traps intended to catch the gator have been baited with fresh chicken.

Meanwhile, Lemke said he and everyone else have no choice but to continue to wait and watch.

From staff reports

http://www.pennlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/105877997267240.xml?pennnews

CRIKEY! AN ITALIAN LAKE UPDATE

Monday, July 21, 2003

An elusive alligator living in Italian Lake seems to have captured the interest, even the affection, of many in the Harrisburg area.

The lake's walkways were aswarm yesterday with camera-toting people trying to get a glimpse of the small reptile discovered last week.

A city official said Fred Lamke, the city's animal control officer, is trying to set a date for a second capture attempt following an unsuccessful try Thursday.

Meanwhile, the traps keep losing their chicken bait or are otherwise impeded. A bridge that crosses the lake has been barricaded to keep people away from the trap, but one man scaled the outer edge of the bridge, pulled up the trap's empty hook and swung it over the bridge.

"It's not right they should catch him on a hook like that," the man said. "It's just not fair."

MEGAN WALDE: 975-9783 or mwalde@patriot-news.com

WGAL 8 (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) 23 July 03 Alligator Pulled From Harrisburg Lake
Harrisburg, Pa.: The 3-foot baby alligator that made the Italian Lake in Harrisburg his home was captured Wednesday.
He is now on his way to a zoo in Williamsport.
Authorities believe someone had him as a pet and dropped him off when he started to get too big. Now the city is trying to rescue him.
The alligator turned Italian Lake into somewhat of a tourist attraction.
While authorities tried to catch the gator, people were trying to capture a picture of the reptile.
A sign was attached to a pole proclaiming the alligator to be Little Tony. Many people wanted to meet him.
"Everybody has to come and try and find the Susquehanna Nessy," said Bob Weber, of Camp Hill.
"I think he could be a little nicer. We came here to see him, he should say hi to us," said Gene Varner, of Dauphin.
Little Tony did pop his head above water Wednesday morning and people were thrilled to see the reptile up close.
"It was worth coming to see him," Varner said.
George Blackburn is a retired school teacher. Wednesday, he got a lesson in science by watching Little Tony.
"Little Tony's) just floating and if a loud noise, if people come by, he'll go down. It's quiet again, he'll come back up and look at you with his big eyes. He's easy to spot because of his big eyes," Blackburn said.

Video report link at URL
Alligator Pulled From Harrisburg Lake

Too bad that it wasn't mentioned that in general gators are impractical pets for the "average" person,the specialized care and housing they require (according to the article you can have several in your bedroom!) and that thousands are sold cheaply to irresponsible owners who dump them later (if they survive that is). IMHO, the picture of the guy with the gator on his lap glamorizes gators as pets, makes it look like they are great - just like a dog or cat, and will probably create a desire for people to run out and get one, adding to the problem!

Oh and when you get tired of it, dump it in a local body of water and when it is caught it will be given a great home!!

The authorities in Harrisburg should be looking for the person that dumped that gator in the lake, charge him/her for animal abandonment, creating a public nusiance etc., and bill him for all the manpower that has been used to try to remove the gator. Maybe that would teach people to act more responsibly with their animals!

Really - For a news article, I dont think it did a bad job at trying to sa what I wanted to say. I talked with the reporter about the fact that they dont make good pets etc, and that most of MY gators were rescues (whitch he did include) but apparently the note of they dont make good pets, just didnt seem newsworthy...

I think youre supposed to get the jist of that from the article -
My main intention was to calm everones "FEAR" of a tiny animal, and to calm the panic down. The reporter, at least IMHO, did a good job of that.

I agree that it would be great to "catch" the man/woman who dumped this animal, but that is nearly impossable. I think the best thing that can be done is the animal caught, and the public get a lesson that the animal is not a "immediate threat to life" and rather, a poor displaced animal, because its unsuitabilaty as a pet -

I think for all intensive purposes it was a positive gator article, at least compared to the many others you see out there mabout "maurading man eating 3 foot animals"

I guess it just depends on how you look at it -

Raven -

That he didnt take a picture of my pen, list the size, and the equipment, all of which he saw for himself, and I pointed out to him, etc -

he instead hammed up the fact that it is located in my bedroom, and that I sleep near them - You cant win them all -

You can see photos of my pen below a ways if you are interested. Id hardly call my enclosure minimal, or a small piece of screen...

If youve dealt with news/media peeps, you always seem to get misrepresented in some way or another, ande, at least in this case, it was what I would consider minimal.

raven -

mm