The alligator rescued over the weekend from a frozen New York lake had swallowed a bathtub stopper, according to authorities.
The nearly 5-foot-long female was torpid and exposed to the cold when she was found Sunday in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park lake, according to a spokesman for the Bronx Zoo, where she is recovering.
After being sighted by a park maintenance worker on Sunday morning, the alligator was pulled from the lake and taken to Animal Care Centers in New York before being transferred to the Bronx Zoo.
Zoo officials reported in a press release that the rescued alligator is too weak to eat on its own and is being tube-fed. At 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms), the alligator is extremely emaciated, as an alligator his length should weigh 30 to 35 pounds (13.6 to 15.9 kilograms), they said.
IT MAY INTEREST YOU:
X-rays show the alligator, estimated to be 5 to 6 years old, had ingested a 4-inch (10-centimeter) bathtub plug, zoo officials said, noting the animal is too weak for vets to try to remove it. .
It is illegal to keep an alligator in New York State, but it is not uncommon for people to buy young alligators and then abandon them. A baby alligator was found in a pool in suburban Bayport in 2019.
Animal Care Centers spokeswoman Katy Hansen said the organization has taken in six American alligators since 2018.
Bronx Zoo director Jim Breheny called the alligator found Sunday a sad example of the exotic pet trade. “People need to think before purchasing exotic animals,” Breheny said. “Everyone needs to know and realize that wild animals do not make good pets.”
Breheny said leaving the alligator in a Brooklyn lake in winter “was an irresponsible act and certainly not in the best interest of the animal.”
