It was an ordinary day. Reading story after story published in just about every newspaper in Eastern Pennsylvania about the capture of an alligator found swimming in the Susquehanna River near Wrightsville, which is a few miles from my home in Lancaster. When the local TV station came on at 12:00 noon, they too had a story about the alligator. The American alligator has been found free-roaming the lower Susquehanna waterways on a number of occasions with one of the most recent sightings in 2007 in the vicinity of Doubling Gap Creek which is a tributary of the Conodoguinet Creek in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. But, that was almost 14 years ago and there is no way the sighting today was that same alligator. As I continued to read and check the news stations and channels, I came across an online story heading...Alligator captured after being spotted in the Susquehanna River near Wrightsville, PA. Just so happened that the alligator was a family pet that escaped from an enclosure the day before and found his way to the river.
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| Oscar the friendly alligator! |
The owner said that he responds to the name of Oscar. After slipping out of his enclosure he wandered toward the river and decided it was such a nice day he would take a swim in the cold waters of the Susquehanna River. Oscar was sighted in the water near shore between the Route 30 bridge and the Route 462 Veterans Memorial Bridge between Columbia and Wrightsville. The animal is between 3 to 4 feet long, but probably won't respond if you call for "Oscar." In the nearby counties, having an alligator is legal. His home, in the back yard of Tyler Hake, a biologist who works with reptiles and has had Oscar for many years, is about 100 feet from the river's West Bank and evidently the river looked so inviting that he decided it was time for a swim. Tyler and a borough crew walked the riverbank and spotted Oscar in the river, pretty close to where they assumed he had entered.
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| A view of Oscar along the side of the river. |
Tyler was able to coax the reptile from the waters of the Susquehanna and return him to his home. Mr. Hake said he appreciated the aid provided by the local police department as well as the borough workers. I'm just assuming that the helpers probably wouldn't have entered the water had they seen the alligator and not known it had escaped from a local residence. Carol and I have eaten many times along the river and know the exact spot where he was seen and captured. Not sure what we might have done had we seen him swimming in the water in front of the restaurant. I'm almost positive that I wouldn't have jumped into the murky water and tried to capture him, being that I'm not a good swimmer and relish my arms and legs too much. All is well once again and no one has to worry about Oscar chopping off an arm or leg if they enter the water on a hot afternoon for a swim. Or...do they! Could there be more than one Oscar in the river? That's such a common name around here that even after they captured Oscar, there still might be another...and yet another Oscar in the water. Do all Oscar the Alligators in the Susquehanna River respond to humans? How does anyone know that the first Oscar that responded is the only one in the murky waters? (Time now for some scary music if you have any handy). As for me...I'm never swimming in the Susquehanna River ever again. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
Too too funny.
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