Updates on Gators, Sharks, and Giant Snakes
Posted by: Loren Coleman on July 5th, 2009
Let me highlight the latest news items on seemingly out-of-place animals or ones that are extending their ranges for the regular readers of Cryptomundo.
A Minnesota family’s Fourth of July backyard barbecue drew an interesting guest this weekend. A 3-foot alligator. Linda Savage was walking in her yard in Eagan when she spotted the gator in a pond, reports local media. It was recovered (pictured above) and here’s the video.
Staff Photo/James L. White
Simon Reeks of the Valley Springs area of Arkansas points to the spot he said he saw an alligator in Dry Jordan Creek on Wednesday, July 1st, just upstream of the low-water crossing between Main Street and the Bypass. Reports of an alligator in a lake at Harrison, Arkansas, have been common during the last month. There’s a news report for July 5th on that unfolding drama here.
The wildlife officials are becoming convinced that bull sharks are getting real comfortable in the freshwater habitat of the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp in southern Louisiana. Check out this July 3rd update.
Also in the same state, two teenagers, Travis Singleton and his younger brother, Dylan, found a five foot long black tip shark while fishing in the Amite River Diversion Canal near Sorrento, Louisiana, on July 2, Thursday afternoon and pulled it out of the water to have proof behind their amazing fish story. More here.
Besides Rumford, Maine remaining abuzz with talk of the “17 ft long” snake, there have not been any new sightings and it has not been captured.
Meanwhile, Migaloo, the white humpback whale of Australia, has moved farther north.
Art by Sam.
Finally, as a special treat for those who read this update all the way to the end, see the long Eddie Middleton-authored report of a Bigfoot near the Lakeview Castle at Hartford, Illinois, here. Hartford is a village in Madison County, Illinois, near the mouth of the Missouri River. Just goes to prove that you never can tell when and where the next Bigfoot sighting will show up, out there or here at Cryptomundo. 🙂
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.
The article regarding the Bull Sharks disturbs me greatly. Those buggers can and do swim up the Mississippi all the time. (Supposedly as far North as Iowa/Illinois) I hate to say it, but with all the climate changes going on its probably only a matter of time before they establish a permanent population of Bull Sharks in the Mississippi River.
I’m wondering if we’ll see more Bigfoot sightings as deforestation, building and climate changes increase. More people are moving into more and more rural/previously wooded areas. And we are getting reports of large cats that were thought to be extinct in those areas.
Hopefully bull sharks don’t go any further up the Mississippi, one thing I’ve always loved about living in Minnesota is that we don’t have sharks, plus the Mississippi ties into so many other waterways imagine where they could get to.
flame821: I’m *fairly* certain (though as an avowed Fortean, I must be careful to avoid being too certain of anything) we’ll see definitive proof of Bigfoot in my lifetime, for precisely that reason. North American forests are shrinking, and sooner or later, Ol’ Smelly is gonna run out of places to hide.
AFAIK there is only one substantiated report of a shark being caught way up the Mississippi and that was sometime in the 40’s or 50’s at Alton, IL, just upriver from St Louis. They have been reported way up the Amazon but that is much cleaner river than the Mississippi; doesn’t have all the chemicals in it the Mississippi has.
Bad news for you Andrew Minnesota. Your Department of Natural Resources netted two live bull sharks in Minnehaha Creek in 2006. See the report here.
At least one shark made it up the Illinois River, see here.
Lake Nicaragua, a freshwater lake has an indigenous breeding population. They appear to be found more often in African and South American (tropical) rivers than those of temperate zones.
The Bull Shark stuff is awesomely creepy.
Between the Minnehaha stuff and the supposed attack in Lake Michigan, it makes the 10 year old in me justified in being nervous about swimming in Lake Michigan.
Loren and Readers,
Thanks for the article on the Lakeview Castle at Hartford, Illinois. If the article is correct and factual it seems old hairy has taken up another residence.
The experience can be frightening to the uninformed and confrontations are even worse. My best and thanks again Loren.
Well, the problem with Bull Sharks is that they’re really curious – they’ll swim up and investigate stuff if it catches their eye. Unfortunately, the way sharks investigate potential food is to go up to it and take a bite… almost makes you wish they had hands.
I grew up in Charleston MO just across the bridge from Cairo IL. Cairo is the most southern city in IL. I’ve seen with my own eyes a shark fin cutting the water in the Mississippi River. Thought I was having an acid flashback when I saw it. LOL
Bull sharks are not the only fish to be wary of in the Mississippi River. I’ve watched swans yanked under by extremely large Blue Catfish, Alligator Gars longer than my 8 foot john boat, and I had my fingers slashed by a Northern Pike that took the blue gill I’d just caught while I was reaching for it. The pike wasn’t a giant, but they aren’t afraid of people! I had to get stitches over it.
Tho I admit the growing numbers of bull sharks in our fresh water rivers disturbs me. Any time we enter the water we enter a world we aren’t designed for and can be seen as prey. What will happen if these sharks move into the smaller rivers that dump into the Mississippi? Many of the rivers are used for recreation. anything from fishing and boating to swimming and tubing. It would be a bad day if your floating the Black River on an inner tube and get hit by a Bull Shark.
Well, the thing to remember with these sharks is that they aren’t necessarily out to get people – they’re just curious, predatory animals that happen to occasionally hit targets that wouldn’t normally be considered prey.
An even more important thing to remember is that sharks, including the Bull Shark, play a vital role in their ecosystem, and under no circumstances should any action be taken that threatens the existence of these animals. Instead, people should probably start reading up on what to do if a shark comes too close – whack it in the nose, eyes, or gills until it takes off to find easier prey, then get out of the water.
Just spent two hours +- roaming all over the “Hartford castle” saw plenty of deer, dog and raccoon tracks, a few human tracks, but nothing that would make me believe something tall and hairy was there, although there is plenty of cover and an adequate food supply.
There are no sharks in Minnehaha Creek. You can swim in peace Andrew. Try reading that article again.