Sewer alligator

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A model of an alligator emerging from a sewer in a mall.
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A model of an alligator emerging from a sewer in a mall.

Sewer alligator stories are part of an urban legend that date back to the late 1920s and early 1930s. They are based upon reports of alligator sightings in rather unorthodox locations, in particular New York City.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Medieval sighting

The urban legend may have originated in the Byzantine Empire. Crocodiles were thought to have dwelled in the city sewers of Constantinople. [citation needed]

[edit] Modern sighting

It was not until February of 1935 that a large alligator was reported in a New York City sewer. According to the story, printed in the New York Times, several teenage boys were disposing of snow into a manhole when they spotted an alligator, allegedly 7 feet (~2.1 m) long, that had gotten stuck in icy water. The male youth then dragged the trapped reptile to the surface. After the alligator snapped at one of them, the teenagers beat it to death with their snow shovels. The report suggested that the alligator had escaped from a ship traveling from the Everglades and had then swum into the Harlem River and then 150 yards (~137 m) up a storm conduit to where it was found.[1]

[edit] Sewer reports

That same year reports were given to the city's Superintendent of Sewers, Teddy May, that swarms of alligators were thriving beneath the city. May, convinced that the men filing the reports were drinking on the job, took the suggested sightings lightly. It was not until he found that there was no real drinking of alcoholic beverages taking place in the sewer that he followed up the claims. To his shock, he witnessed a large number of alligators, most only about 2 feet (61 cm), to be living within pipes that emptied into the trunk lines below major streets.[2]

[edit] Sewer clean-up

All the reptiles were apparently exterminated within a few months, killed mostly using rat poison, flushing them out to sea through trunk lines or even shooting them.

[edit] The legend

Following the reports of sewer alligators in the 1930s, the story has built up over the decades and become more of an urban legend. Many have even questioned the extent of truth in the original stories, some even suggesting it to be fiction and that Teddy May's creative mind may have contributed to the tales. However, the story of the 'Sewer Gator' in New York City is well known and various versions have been told.

[edit] Florida to New York

The original story was that wealthy families would return from vacation from Florida to New York City, bringing alligators with them, as pet presents to their children. The time frame of this tradition is rather gray, but it has been suggested it originated in the late 1930s. When the alligators grew too large for comfort, the family would proceed to flush the reptiles down the toilet.[3] [4]

What happens next varies. The most common story is that the alligators survive and reside within the sewer and reproduce, surviving by feeding on rats and rubbish, growing to huge sizes and striking fear into sewer workers.[5] In Robert Daley's book, 'The World Beneath the City'(1959), he comments that one night a sewer worker in New York City was shocked to find a large alligator swimming toward him. Weeks of hunting followed.

[edit] The albino mutant

Some versions go further to suggest that, after the alligator was disposed of at such a young age, it would live the majority of its life in an environment not exposed to sunlight, and thus it would apparently in time lose its eyesight and the pigment in its hide and that the reptile would grow to be completely albino, pure white in color with red eyes.[6] Another reason why an albino alligator would retreat to an underground sewer is because of its vulnerability to the sun in the wild, as there is no dark pigment in the creature's skin, it has no protection from the sun, which makes it very hard for it to survive in the wild. [7]

The albino alligator, which does in fact exist, has rarely ever been sighted in the wild. The albino alligator got caught up in the urban legend, predominantly because of its scarceness within the wild, because of its colour, the bright white and pinkish skin makes it vulnerable to predators as an infant as well as an obvious sight for any source of food it may attempt to collect. The urban legend developed into believing that since these alligators could not survive in the wild because of their colour they retreated to the sewers where their unusual skin would not disadvantage them.

The albino story is what gives the urban legend its character, as many see the story as one of 'mutant alligators beneath New York City.' There have never been any official sightings of this kind of alligator in New York City. It is more likely that it was made up to add a more mysterious side to the legend. Here is a link of a picture of A albino mutant.http://grandpacliff.com/Animals/Img-Animals/Img-Albinos/albino-alligator-b.jpg

[edit] Skepticism

There are numerous recent media accounts of alligators occupying storm drains and sewer pipes:[8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]

However, most experts believe that a sewer is not a fit environment for any alligator, and they would be unlikely to be able to reproduce down there. The animals need warm temperatures all year round. High vulnerability to disease would stop any alligator from lasting long in a city sewer. Of course, the major assumption behind these assertions is that the alligators in question would never venture back to the surface again, choosing instead to occupy the sewer/storm drain environment exclusively.

The majority of the New York sightings indicate that the alligators were only small in size. It is possible that they were caimans, also a member of the crocodile family with a higher tolerance for low temperatures. [14]

[edit] In popular culture

A screenshot from the film Alligator (1980), which is based on the stories of the sewer alligator
Enlarge
A screenshot from the film Alligator (1980), which is based on the stories of the sewer alligator

The famous urban legend has reached many other media since its first development in the early 1930s;

  • Radiohead's song "Fog," initially titled "Alligators in New York Sewers," references the legend.
  • In Capcom's survival horror game Resident Evil 2, one of the "bosses" is a massive alligator that the player must fight while traveling through a sewer pipe. The game Apocalypse also has a giant sewer alligator as a sub-boss.
  • Neil Gaiman's novel Neverwhere mentions a number of cities having giant animals living under them. For New York City, this is a giant albino alligator.
  • In Thomas Pynchon's 1961 novel V, the anti-hero Benny Profane takes a job as an alligator exterminator in the NYC sewers.
  • The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles originated as four pet turtles who were dropped into a New York City sewer and mutated into humanoid reptiles. The character Leatherhead, depending on which version is either a friend or foe of the Turtles, is an alligator who was flushed into the NYC sewers and also mutated into a humanoid reptile.
  • In The Simpsons episode A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love, the following happens:
    (A Chinese dragon patrols the streets of Chinatown)
    Marge: "It must be the Chinese New Year!"
    (Animal control comes and shoots tranquiliser darts at it)
    Animal control: "People buy them when they're cute, then they flush them down the toilet."
  • One of the many villains of the comic character Spider-Man, is The Lizard. Battles with the villain often occur in the sewers of New York, and one of the episodes of the animated series reveals a group of The Lizard's offspring living down there.
  • World of Warcraft features a rare spawn known as the Sewer Beast, a large Crocolisk that appears in the Stormwind canals every so often.
  • In the Wild Cards series of shared-world novels, "Sewer Jack" Robicheaux is a New York City subway worker who has the power to transform into a giant alligator.
  • In an episode of The Tick, "The Tick vs. Filth", Tick, Arthur, and Sewer Urchin and are attacked by sewer lobsters. After Urchin wards them off, Tick and Urchin discuss the alligator stories:
    Tick: "I thought there were alligators in the sewer! I mean, I was ready for alligators!"
    Sewer Urchin: "Ah, no. That's definitely a myth. We got lobsters."

[edit] References

  1. ↑  NY Times article reproduced Gatorhole.com. Retrieved December 6, 2005.
  2. ↑  Description of book 'The World Beneath the City' by Robert Daley Gatorhole.com. Retrieved December 6, 2005.
  3. ↑  Comments regarding the theory of alligators being brought up from Florida About.com. Retrieved December 6, 2005.
  4. ↑  Revenge of the Sewer Gators About.com. Retrieved December 6, 2005.
  5. ↑  Revenge of the Sewer Gators About.com. Retrieved December 6, 2005.
  6. ↑  Suggestions that the alligators may have been albino About.com. Retrieved December 6, 2005.
  7. ↑  Evidence suggesting that albino alligators are very sensitive to the sun Omahazoo.com. Retrieved December 15, 2005.
  8. ↑  The possibility of Caimans About.com. Retrieved December 6, 2005.
  9. ↑  The film 'Alligator' released in 1980 IMDb.com. Retrieved December 6, 2005.

[edit] External links

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