Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Gator Update: Rio Vista Edition

Thanks to Cormac Brown for the tip.

4-foot-long gator captured in Delta: "RIO VISTA -- First the wandering whales, now a vagabond alligator. Authorities this morning captured a feisty four-foot alligator found next to a rural highway in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

No one knows how the gray and white reptile got there, but officials are glad motorist Dennis Bradley of Elk Grove -- the first to see the gator -- quickly called for help.

Bradley, who was on his way to work in Antioch, told authorities he had stopped to stretch his legs when he spotted the gator, whom he called Maria after his granddaughter (although state Fish and Game officials aren't sure of the reptile's gender).

'He appeared very healthy,' said Kyle Orr, spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game, hours after the gator was fetched from alongside Highway 160 three miles south of Highway 12. His resting spot was south of Rio Vista about 1.5 miles south of Three Mile Slough Bridge."

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