NYC Official: Send Gator Back to Sewer!
June 20, 2001
Charles Sturcken, New York City's chief of environmental protection, says he wasn't kidding yesterday when he told a reporter that the Central Park gator spotted in the Harlem Meer June 16 ought to be returned, if caught, to its "natural habitat" ? the sewer.
Sturcken claims ? correctly, no doubt ? that an alligator would not survive the winter in Central Park. "The sewer system is much warmer and is the city's answer to a natural swamp, with 6,000 miles of tunnels and a billion gallons of water, replenished every day," he told reporters, sounding rather like a press agent for the Sewer Department.
Never mind that herpetologists say the pollution alone in New York City's sewers would kill anything that lived down there, including gators. According to Frank Indiviglio, a reptile specialist at the Staten Island Zoo, the sewers are "too polluted, too cold and there is not enough sunlight" for alligators to survive.
In an interview with NYC24, Indiviglio said the popular notion that abandoned saurians inhabit New York's nether regions is "probably just a scary story to keep children out of the sewer system" ? which jibes with the opinion of folklorists, who have followed "sewer gator" tales for decades and concluded they're urban legends.
In any case, it's unlikely that Sturcken's proposed solution to the displaced gator problem will be put into practice. City parks officials have already stated they plan on shipping the intruder south to the Everglades ? if they ever catch it, that is. The beast has not been spotted again since the initial sightings on June 16th (see update).
(Sources: Associated Press, Fox News, NYC24)
Charles Sturcken, New York City's chief of environmental protection, says he wasn't kidding yesterday when he told a reporter that the Central Park gator spotted in the Harlem Meer June 16 ought to be returned, if caught, to its "natural habitat" ? the sewer.
Sturcken claims ? correctly, no doubt ? that an alligator would not survive the winter in Central Park. "The sewer system is much warmer and is the city's answer to a natural swamp, with 6,000 miles of tunnels and a billion gallons of water, replenished every day," he told reporters, sounding rather like a press agent for the Sewer Department.
Never mind that herpetologists say the pollution alone in New York City's sewers would kill anything that lived down there, including gators. According to Frank Indiviglio, a reptile specialist at the Staten Island Zoo, the sewers are "too polluted, too cold and there is not enough sunlight" for alligators to survive.
In an interview with NYC24, Indiviglio said the popular notion that abandoned saurians inhabit New York's nether regions is "probably just a scary story to keep children out of the sewer system" ? which jibes with the opinion of folklorists, who have followed "sewer gator" tales for decades and concluded they're urban legends.
In any case, it's unlikely that Sturcken's proposed solution to the displaced gator problem will be put into practice. City parks officials have already stated they plan on shipping the intruder south to the Everglades ? if they ever catch it, that is. The beast has not been spotted again since the initial sightings on June 16th (see update).
(Sources: Associated Press, Fox News, NYC24)
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