Alligator rumors gaining traction

26 March 2010
The Dallas Morning News

The lake is ringed by police tape, the town awash in rumors, but the investigation is stuck in the mud.

It's been two weeks since a woman called the Kaufman Police Department, reported what appeared to be a four-foot alligator at a local park and hung up. The police chief snapped into action, sending his animal control officer to scour Kaufman City Lakes Park for clues.

A week later came the case's first and only break: a few claw prints in the mud. Or paw prints.

Or ...

Well, no one's sure exactly what they are. But the tracks are the first evidence that the alleged alligator might be more than mere conjecture.

That's all the city needed to hear. It gated off the park and has set up surveillance on the waters (read: camera in a tree). But it soon became obvious to the police chief, Michael Holder, that the locals were out of their depth.
"Not all of us are that experienced in the ways of the alligator," he admitted. Enter Eric Minter, a state game warden. He's spent eight years tracking gators, possible gators and logs that look like gators across Kaufman County - and he fears no beast so much as a flock of panicked residents.

"People always think they're gonna lose their cows," he said. "They see movies like Lake Placid, with giant alligators eating people. Alligators are like any other wild animal. They try to avoid human contact."

Which, at the moment, is the problem. Not even Minter is sure if the tracks really belong to an alligator. And despite years of local rumor, police still don't have a single documented sighting of the fabled reptile.

When the weather warms up, Minter and Holder plan a boating expedition, hoping to spot the fugitive sunning itself on a rock.

If they do, the city will have to decide whether to trap and move the animal, which might just make room for another, or simply learn to live with it. "Maybe we can put up signs saying, whatever, 'Alligators may be in the area,' " mused the police chief.

AT A GLANCE
Keeping the peace

Wild alligators aren't uncommon in North Texas. They tend to shy away from people, but the species do occasionally overlap. State game warden Eric Minter has some advice:

• Don't feed the alligators. They'll get used to the service - and snappy when it's not available.
• Don't accidentally feed the alligators. Keep your pets on leashes and your children close at hand.