Chicago gator stays out of sight as efforts to capture it enter fourth day
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO—The Chicago alligator had gone to ground Friday morning, with no confirmed sightings of the animal since early the day before as attempts to capture it entered a fourth day.
Chicago police and animal control officials were called to the Humboldt Park lagoon around noon Tuesday, hours after people first reported seeing the reptile there and shared photos of it on social media.
After three days of unfruitful attempts, the team trying to capture the animal has reached out to biologists and other experts who recommended a machine used underwater to mimic the sound of a baby alligator. The machine, which was being lent by someone in “the Southern states,” was supposed to arrive in Chicago by around noon Friday.
There has not been a confirmed alligator sighting since around 2 a.m. Thursday, according to volunteer animal catcher Alligator Bob, who declines to have his full name used. Several people watching from the Humboldt Park Boathouse have sent in “Loch Ness”-quality pictures, he said.
Fluctuations in temperature over the past few days may account for the lack of sightings. It is also possible that the alligator was injured or sick when he entered the lagoon, he said.
People have flocked to the West Side park to try to see the alligator, with Chicago Park District workers putting up snow fencing around the lagoon Thursday to keep onlookers away from the water.
Although more than a day had passed since a confirmed sighting, the novelty and excitement of an alligator in the lagoon has yet to wear off.
A man riding along the lagoon’s outer path with his two children stopped Friday morning to take a picture near one of several danger signs placed Wednesday to warn of the alligator.
“Make an alligator face,” he told his kids as they bared their teeth and raised their hands to perform a gator chomp.
Around 11 a.m. cries erupted from a group gathered watching a trap on the eastern side of the lagoon. Several people claimed they saw the alligator near the trap.
“We saw it like the blink of an eye,” said Deandre Jackson, who took off work Friday to investigate the Humboldt Park alligator hype for himself.
He said it looked like a fish or turtle surfacing until the eyes were visible, then it was clear that it was the alligator.
Jackson expressed dissatisfaction with Alligator Bob’s tactics. Others in the group agreed.
“What are we holding him accountable to, what are the standards?” Martinek said. “Can we get someone on payroll?”