There’s a common saying in Florida that you should expect to find an alligator in any body of water, and that includes storm drains.
Last Saturday, Jan. 18, officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Cape Coral Fire Department helped remove a large alligator that appeared to be stuck in a storm drain near 2857 NW 27th St. in Cape Coral.
After using the winch on the brush truck to lift the concrete lid off the culvert and remove it, officials measured the gator once it was placed on the trapper’s truck and discovered it was approximately 10 feet, 6 inches long.
“Because of his size, he will be taken to a gator farm to live out his life and possibly be part of a breeding program,” said the Cape Coral Fire Department in a social media post.
Finding an alligator in a storm drain isn’t uncommon in Florida, but it is uncommon to find one like this in late January. According to the FWC, Florida alligators are usually dormant through most of winter. Since gators are cold-blooded, they actually stop feeding when the ambient temperature drops below approximately 70° F, and they become completely dormant when temps hit below 55° F.
“During this time, they can be found in burrows (or ‘dens’) that they construct adjacent to an alligator hole or open water, but they occasionally emerge to bask in the sun during spells of warm weather,” says the FWC on its website.
There are roughly 1.3 million alligators in the state of Florida, says FWC, and they can be found in all 67 counties. Anyone concerned about an alligator, or anyone who finds one in a place it shouldn’t be, can call the FWC’s Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286).
A version of this story first appeared in our sibling publication Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
