August 25, 2010

Another Summer of Crazy Crocs

George Rizer for The Boston Globe

Brockton Animal Control Officer Brian Piche posed with the three-foot American alligator that was found crossing a city street early Sunday morning, August 22, 2010.

If you have been watching the comments section at Cryptomundo, you’ve seen that there’s been an explosion of alligators being found throughout the USA. Also, word comes that two three-foot long Chinese alligators escaped from north of Avignon, France, and are roaming the countryside.

There has even been a sighting in Cyprus:

Wildlife experts in Cyprus are trying to verify reports that a crocodile is on the loose after a farmer says she got the fright of her life with it staring her in the face.

The August 4 sighting at a mountain village some 50 km west of the capital Nicosia has prompted authorities to set traps and bait to catch the runaway reptile, which is not indigenous to the Mediterranean island. “We have not found anything that suggests there is something there, but we will keep on looking,” said Constantinos Moustakas of the Cyprus Fisheries and Marine Research Department.

The woman, who keeps rabbits and owns a small vegetable patch, was apparently gardening when she came across the reptile. It is unclear if it was an alligator, or a crocodile.

Indeed, the American situation has gotten so seemingly out of hand that regular news blogsites are taking note of the broad spectrum of incidents. Kyle Munzenrieder of Miami’s New Times blogged about the gators turning up in New York City and Chicago recently. The alligator was the second one found in the Chicago River in a month.

Other recent finds have included crazy crocs being found in or seen in

Brockton, Massachusetts;

Patapsco River, Maryland; and

Pallisade, Colorado, to name a few.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

Filed under Animal Escapees, Breaking News, Crazy Crocs, Cryptomundo Exclusive, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoology, Weird Animal News