2 new residents call Gatorland home
Two abused alligators found in Illinois are acclimating to their new home, Gatorland.
David was discovered — with his mouth taped shut — by a kayaker in Lake Michigan, and Casanova was found in an aquarium in a drug house in Chicago. They were introduced to a small Gatorland pool and 30 other alligators Friday morning.
Each of the new reptile residents took a turn at putting their heads atop Pop, elder statesman of the area at about 70 years old.
“When alligators are rubbing on each other, and they’re pushing each other around, that’s socialization,” said Mike Hileman, park director. “That’s how they get to know one another. It’s a handshake. It’s a fist bump. It’s ‘Hey, man, how you doing?’ ”
There was time to get to know David and Casanova. Hileman, Savannah Boan, director of social media, and Danny Perich, one of Gatorland’s gator experts, drove the animals here in a van from the Wildlife Discovery Center in Lake Forest, Illinois, where they had been nursed back to health.
After the kayaker rescued David from the lake, a veter
inarian check revealed a stomach full of debris.
“He was full of all kinds of different plastic. His liver was completely shut down,” Boan said.
It took about 18 months of care in Illinois to get David healthy enough to move to Florida, Hileman said.
“You’ll laugh, but there’s hand-feeding involved,” he said. “When an animal is stressed and going through those things, just like when we’re sick, we don’t want to eat … but you got to eat.”
At Gatorland, they’ll be fed regularly and monitored for their progress.
“What we’re looking for is state of health. Big indicators are bite marks, if you see them being pushed out of the water … not eating. That’s a stress-related thing,” Hileman said. The animals are divided into different parts of the park according to size and temperament. The new gators could be moved into the larger breeding marsh eventually.
On Friday, David and Casanova nosed around their new environments and soaked in the sun. Within 30 minutes of getting into their new waters, both were bending their heads back and bellowing. It’s a territorial thing, but it’s also the edge of the breeding season.
Experts can tell that David hasn’t seen much sunshine.
“He’s an older alligator, but he’s never been in the sun long enough to makes those juvenile bands [on his tail] go away,” Boan said.
Casanova was found in a drug house several years ago, Boan said.
“He had been living in a teeny tiny aquarium, and he was being fed one goldfish a month,” she said.
Now, Casanova is about 6.5 feet long and weighs about 130 pounds; David is 5.5 feet long and 100 pounds. Their ages can’t be known. Gatorland adds about 30 animals per year from outside sources, Hileman said. That has surged in recent years, he said, which he attributes to the outreach through Gatorland’s YouTube channel and networking via Gatorland Global Conservation Program.
“It’s fueled by our YouTube channel and Gatorland vlogs. … All the money that comes from that we use on different projects for conservation all around the world — Cuba, India, Jamaica, South Florida and now, Chicago,” Boan said. “Who knew that was gonna happen?”
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