A man fishing in a Philadelphia park caught what appeared to be an alligator on the rocky banks. Ike Peyton, from Delaware County, captured the three-and-a-half-foot creature with his hands and wrapped its jaws closed with caution tape before reporting it to the police.
The small ‘alligatorid’ was handed to local animal shelter ACCT Philly, which nurtured it for a day before passing it to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.
The species of the animal has sparked an online debate, with some suggesting it’s a caiman, a species native to South America, while others claim it’s an American alligator.
What’s certain is that it’s some member of the alligator family, and releasing such an animal into the wild is illegal in Pennsylvania. The caiman was spotted on March 5 in FDR Park in south Philadelphia.
Sarah Barnett, director of ACCT Philly, stated that the animal, now affectionately referred to as Cay Man, was taken back to the shelter but had to be housed in her office to prevent it from preying on other animals in its care.
Barnett consulted a zookeeper friend, who believed it was a caiman.
The creature was initially cold, but after purchasing and installing a specialist heater, it started coming back to life.
It’s unclear exactly how the creature was captured, but one person described on social media how Peyton captured it with his bare hands.
Megan Fitzsimmons said that Peyton alerted a nearby police officer about the creature sunning itself on the bank while he was fishing, then went back down and picked it up before it could dart into water.
ACCT warned people not to release pets into the wild and to contact the shelter instead if they have an animal they can no longer keep, including caimans or any other animal that is extremely difficult to humanely house.
»Fisherman captures a caiman using just his hands in Pennsylvania park lake«
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