SUN-SENTINEL (Florida) 07 December 05 Harvey the alligator heads south - Gatorland workers relocate Harvey, a 10-foot alligator that lived in a New York school's zoo. (Susan Jacobson)
After enduring a 24-plus-hour ride in the back of a minivan through snow and traffic, Harvey the alligator got his first glimpse of Florida sunshine Tuesday.
It was hard to tell what he thought as the media and workers at Gatorland snapped photos of him and he prepared to enter his new home at the tourist attraction in south Orange County.
Two Gatorland workers fetched the 10-foot reptile, who lived for about 15 years in a small zoo in the basement of South Side Middle School in Rockville Centre, N.Y., and drove him more than 1,100 miles to Central Florida.
It was one of the many alligator rescues that Gatorland performs every year.
"It's a win-win situation," said Mike Hileman, adventure tours manager and alligator trainer at Gatorland. "We get a big alligator, and the alligator gets to live."
Harvey was part of a school petting zoo that grew from a couple of goldfish nearly 20 years ago to a menagerie featuring a 50-pound tortoise, guinea pigs, mice, rats, snakes, a monitor lizard, parakeets, cockatiels, doves, prairie dogs, chinchillas, iguanas, rabbits, hedgehogs, chickens and dwarf goats.
The zoo, along with a weather center, helped attract students to the school's science and technology clubs -- known as Sci-Tech. The children enjoyed the social atmosphere and found a fun way to learn where everybody was welcome, technology teacher Brian Kerr said.
"It's something really special for the kids," he said.
But as Kerr, 56, prepares to retire, he has slowly given away most of the animals. Many went to a preserve and educational center in Rockville Centre. Kerr heard about Gatorland's rescue efforts on a TV news story and asked if the attraction would take Harvey, the teacher said Tuesday from his home in New York.
Before he left school Monday morning, Harvey lived in a plexiglass enclosure in the basement that Kerr got from a bank that had been demolished. He waded in a pool, walked in sand and was pampered with brand-name supermarket chickens. Kerr fed Harvey one of his favorites -- a garlic-seasoned bird -- last Wednesday. He will eat turkey dogs at Gatorland and live alone at first in an enclosure with a pond.
Eventually, after he gets used to the sights, sounds and smells of the small park on South Orange Blossom Trail, Harvey probably will be housed with other alligators, said Flavio Morrissiey, entertainment director at Gatorland, who brought Harvey to Florida along with Babs Steorts, the park's zoological director.
The two captured Harvey in his pen, put black tape over his eyes and around his mouth and wrapped his head in a comforter, donated by a student, to prevent him from hurting himself or his handlers or damaging the rented van.
Kerr, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, got Harvey when he was only about 2 feet long. The local Department of Environmental Conservation on Long Island had arrested someone who illegally possessed Harvey and had been walking him on a leash with his mouth taped. Officials sought out Kerr and his zoo.
Today, the alligator weighs about 500 pounds, the teacher said. On Tuesday, Morrissiey let Kerr know by phone that Harvey had weathered the trip. The teacher said he's never been to Florida, but now he has a reason to visit.
"I feel real good about where he is now," Kerr said. "I just think he's got a great shot."
Harvey the alligator heads south