Crow Wing County deputies pose with a young alligator captured along a bike trail near Brainerd, Minnesota.
Passers-by found a baby alligator along a bike train near Brainerd earlier this week.
A reptile handler from a nearby wildlife center retrieved the creature, the aftermath of which you can see in this YouTube video:
Authorities believe it was either someone’s pet that escaped or was released illegally.
It’s safe to say that alligators will not be a permanent addition to the Minnesota ecosystem, at least no time soon. But our climate is changing. Perhaps one day Minnesota gators will roam our world?
So, without further adieu, here are:
Ten ways that Minnesota alligators will be different than other alligators
- Minnesota alligators always leave part of the human behind in case someone else wants some.
- Minnesota alligators won’t eat you until they know you pretty well or if your kids play hockey together.
- Minnesota alligators have powerful jaws that clamp shut with a force of 2,151 psi. This is ideal for pursing lips upon seeing an earlobe ring.
- Minnesota alligators kill by dragging their prey to the bottom of a lake in what is called a “passive aggressive roll.”
- Minnesota alligators will eat geese, but prefer grey ducks.
- Minnesota alligators live about 50 years in the wild, but almost twice that long in mostly sexless long term relationships.
- Minnesota alligators can weigh up to 1,000 pounds, but will attribute most of that to “heavy clothes” and “water weight.”
- Minnesota alligators always make jello molds with rodents inside, even though they themselves don’t really enjoy eating them.
- Minnesota alligators only hug when mating.
- Minnesota alligators sport 80 teeth, a muscular tail and a Prince CD that always seem to stand out in the small burrow they dig to raise their young.
The muskies will eat them.
This made me smile during a difficult Minnesota news week. Thanks!
For my tastes — and I moved from MN to FL — too crude to be cute. Man can’t put
the “nice” in alligators.
I wrote “MN” can’t put the “nice” in alligators. The moderator changed my word.
This is why I so seldom post.
It must have been an autocorrect.
I live in and was mostly raised in Southeast Alabama and was partly raised in Belle Glade Florida and visited Family in Okeechobee Florida often. I’m no stranger to “Gators,” there were many then in Florida and now even more, along with some invasive predators that are messin up the ecosystem. Southeast Alabama has plenty of Alligators too, they are in our Ponds, Lakes, Rivers, Creeks, Springs! The climate change has made it to where they can tolerate the cooler water in the Springs even in colder weather, you can spot some out sometimes when we are kayaking. Just about anywhere there are bodies of water you can find them, even our Oceans! I only live about 1 hour 45 minutes from Panama City Beach Florida and they have been seen (rarely) in the water and on the Beaches! My Husband and I used to catch Gators, the ones in the Swamp behind our home on the Farm we took care of, and in the two Ponds that were on the place, they were plentiful! I didn’t want to kill them but the Owner of the property wanted it done, so my Husband and the Owners Son’s did. With me fussing a lot, my Husband gave in and he and I caught some and relocated em to save them though, I quit helping catch em altogether, sad it was.