In a previous blog I encouraged you to visit the Los Angeles Zoo to view one very special alligator—Reggie. Apparently, Reggie doesn’t like visitors. No, it’s not what you think. Reggie didn’t take his frustrations out on zoo guests. In fact, it seems Reggie doesn’t want anything to do with zoo visitors… or his new home.
Just days after the L.A. Zoo hosted a massive celebration welcoming the 71/2-foot gator to his new digs, Reggie bolted. I know; it’s hard to imagine how a nearly 8-foot alligator weighing more than 115 pounds could elude zookeepers. Leave it to Reggie to find a way.
According to zoo officials, the keepers in charge of taking care of the celebrity alligator spent more than two hours searching for Reggie when they discovered he was missing from his personal exhibit pond early yesterday morning. Zookeepers reportedly searched every rock and bush and couldn’t find the gator anywhere. Emotions ran high when it got close to the zoo’s 10 a.m. opening time and Reggie was still AWOL. Finally, just minutes before the gates were supposed to open a zoo employee found the wily beast near a loading dock several hundred yards away from his exhibit. Zoo officials believe Reggie climbed a mesh-covered wall of his exhibit and wandered off.
Alligator on the loose, minutes before the zoo was to open—-YIKES! Frankly, I’m not surprised Reggie was able to make a dash for freedom and remain on the loose for so long. After all, he successfully eluded animal trappers for nearly two years while he was residing at an urban lake in the L.A. area. He obviously is one smart gator and he probably wasn’t pleased that he had been sentenced to life in a zoo anyway.
After he was captured zoo and city officials made light of the situation by making humorous statements to the media regarding the gator’s escape. One zoo official said that he would expect nothing less than one escape attempt from Reggie and hoped that the next time the alligator wanted to explore the zoo he would give them a heads up. (Yeah, right.) A City Councilwoman also chimed in about Reggie’s escape. She insisted that the gator simply “wanted to introduce himself to his new zoo neighbors.” (Okay.) My take: Reggie was headed back to Harbor City’s Machado Lake where his previous owner dumped him when he got too big.
Regardless of why he tried to escape, Reggie sure is giving the L.A. Zoo some major publicity. It’s gotten to the point where even I’m anxious to meet the crafty gator.
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