Lost Alligator Visits South Carolina Home And Rings Doorbell, Hoping For Dip In Pool
Humans like to think they’ve dominated the planet and fashioned themselves as nature’s top animal. But every now and then, something happens to remind us that the wilderness is very close and perhaps we’re in its way.
Take a lost alligator in South Carolina. Spring has always been their time to roam around. As the Washington Post put it, the reptile is the “ambassador of spring.” The weather has warmed up and the alligator heads to the ponds, beaches, riverbanks, and wetlands.
This is the time of year in South Carolina when the young males strike out on their own — it’s mating season and they’re fighting for territory, according to the Post and Courier.
But human beings put up a housing development on the alligators’ land, in a spot off a U.S. highway. So when the alligator went on its usual springtime jaunt, apparently looking for some cool water to lounge in, it ended up on someone’s front porch.
And according to the shocked and amused neighbors, the alligator padded right up to the front door, stretched onto its hind legs, and appeared to ring the doorbell.
Alligator caught on camera scratching at the front door of home in South Carolina. https://t.co/8saOkv2I1G https://t.co/Rfn4XsB0tB
— ABC News (@ABC) May 4, 2016
Jay Butfiloski, who runs the alligator program at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, wasn’t surprised that the animal ended up in the neighborhood Monday.
“Often alligators decide they want to be somewhere else and may take a fairly direct route to another water body. Unfortunately, in many situations, the animal kind of gets caught in an area where it has a hard time finding a way to get back to the water.”
Lost is how Gary Rogers, who is visiting South Carolina from Virginia and was hoping to see an alligator during his stay, described the animal.
He told WCIV that he was out walking his dog when he saw the creature walk right past a construction crew and into a couple front yards. Astonished, he pulled out his phone and started filming, capturing the moment the alligator got up onto its hind legs and appeared to ring the doorbell.
“He was trying to climb the fence a couple times. Tried to climb somebody’s door. It was pretty funny actually. The gator was not aggressive at all. He was just kind of trying to find his way out. I mean he was caught between fences, in between a couple of houses. Had no place to go. Went around the air conditioner a couple of times.”
Rogers got the impression that the alligator was trying to get into the backyard — where there was a pool.
He wandered around for about an hour before making his way back to the woods. Contrary to popular phobia, alligators aren’t very aggressive by nature, but they’ll react violently if threatened with a “false charge” and can move pretty fast. And they’re not particular about what they eat: fish, turtles, snakes, small mammals, carrion, pets, and sometimes humans.
Jamie Weathersbee-Bailey, who wasn’t home when the alligator came calling, thinks perhaps the reptile was after her dachshund, who was inside at the time.
Watch this very polite alligator ring a doorbell to get some snacks pic.twitter.com/dvQjMf08w3
— UPROXX (@UPROXX) May 5, 2016
Although, like most South Carolina residents, she’s used to the odd alligator-sighting, she was shocked by her visitor. She said her house is the “deepest lot in the neighborhood with no ponds close by.”
And she doesn’t know if he actually managed to ring her bell, but he did leave some nasty gouge marks on her doorframe and doorknob. Rogers daughter sent her the video of the visit while she was at work.
“I thought it was a joke. And the first picture she sent me was from over here. And I couldn’t see it on the porch. And then they sent me the video front on and I was in disbelief. Couldn’t believe it. I mean who would have thought — an alligator! I told my husband earlier I said we’re going to get a gator crossing sign — and we’re putting it in the front yard.”
Human-alligator sightings are common in South Carolina, and attacks occasional, since the population has rebounded from near-extinction. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls them “one of the first endangered species success stories.”
About 100,000 of them live in South Carolina now, and annual state-sponsored hunts to control the population have proven controversial. Further, the prevalence of the human development has made it hard to relocate the animals to their own, human-free spaces.
[Image via Dimitris Timpilis/Shutterstock]
