Sharks in the water may be a given in some places; alligators too. But in New York City, they’re not thought of as common, which is why it was such a shock when an alligator was found and saved from a lake in Brooklyn last month.
The now infamous female gator named Godzilla found a new, temporary home at the Bronx Zoo as it not only recovers from the cold as a result of its abandonment, but from a bathtub stopper it swallowed — it is unclear whether this happened before or after it arrived at the park. The city Parks Department, which oversaw Godzilla’s capture and transportation to the zoo, believes she was a domesticated pet who had been dumped by her owner.
Nearly 5 feet long, the alligator found in the lake at Prospect Park on Feb. 19 was extremely underweight, weighing a mere 15 pounds when an alligator of this size should typically weigh between 30 and 35 pounds, officials with the Bronx Zoo said.
Zoo officials said that radiographs of the alligator indicated that she is between 5 and 6 years of age.
This is not the first alligator in the city to be salvaged from abandonment, as it turns out. According to The New York Times, “the city rescues several alligators a year,” oddly enough many of the rescued gators — not native to the area — have also been left by owners who no longer have interest in taking care of them once they’ve grown large enough.
The Parks Department also suspects that was the case with Godzilla — likely adopted as a baby and abandoned once the owner was overwhelmed by the animal’s growth.
Godzilla is the sixth city gator cared for by Animal Care Centers’ (ACC) in just the past five years, a spokesperson for the shelter group said.
Odd, stray animals are a more common occurrence in the city than many might expect. The New Yorker reported a slew of strange pets New Yorkers keep in their homes from peacocks and snakes to birds from the Amazon and water dragons. And 311 has a channel on their hotline for those who…
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