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{{Short description|Urban legend}}
'''Sewer alligator''' stories are part of an ] that date back to the late ] and early ]s. They are based upon reports of ] sightings in rather unorthodox locations, in particular ].
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2017}}
] in a shopping center]]
The '''sewer alligator''' is an urban legend centered around ]s that live in sewers outside alligators' native range. Some cities in which sewer alligators have supposedly been found are ] and ]. Accounts of fully grown sewer alligators are unproven, but small alligators are sometimes rescued from sewers.<ref name=truth /> Stories date back to the late 1920s and early 1930s; in most instances they are part of ].


''The New York Times'' reports the city rescues 100 alligators per year, some directly from homes where they are kept as illegal pets (which can be legally ordered online in other states and are legal to mail when small), and some from outside (where they can attract considerable attention) though mostly above-ground.<ref name="truth">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/nyregion/alligators-sewers-new-york.html |title=The Truth About Alligators in the Sewers of New York |author=Corey Kilgannon |date=26 Feb 2020 |work=]}}</ref> Though escapees and former pets may survive for a short time in New York sewers, longer-term survival is not possible due to the low temperatures and the bacteria in human feces.<ref name="truth" /> Sewer maintenance crews insist there is no underground population of alligators in sewers.<ref name="snopes">{{cite web |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/alligators-sewers/ |title=Can Alligators Live in Sewers? |author=David Mikkelson |date= 10 July 1999}}</ref>
==History==


==Legend==
===Inaugural sighting===
The legend of ] inhabiting the ] of ] is a widely circulated ]. It suggests that alligators navigate the city's sewers, preying on rats and other refuse, and posing a threat to ], who are said to carry firearms for protection. According to the lore, these alligators are often described as large and vicious, with some attributing a lack of pigmentation to their purported status as "]." The urban myth has permeated popular culture, featuring in various forms of media including books, television shows, and movies. It has also inspired hoaxes and artistic projects, and is commemorated in the city with a quasi-holiday known as Alligator in the Sewer Day,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kilgannon |first=Corey |date=February 26, 2020 |title=The Truth About Alligators in the Sewers of New York |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/nyregion/alligators-sewers-new-york.html |website=]}}</ref> celebrated on February 9.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2014 Alligators in the Sewers Day |url=https://www.nych2o.org/2014-alligators-in-the-sewers-day.html |access-date=2021-08-16 |website=NYC H2O |language=en}}</ref>
]
It was not until ] of ] that a large alligator was reported in a New York City sewer. According to the story, printed in the '']'', several teenage boys were disposing of snow into a manhole when they spotted an alligator, allegedly 7-feet long, that had gotten stuck in icey water. The male youth then dragged the trapped ] to the surface. Following the alligator snapping 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 Everglades then swam into Harlem River and then came 150 yards up a storm conduit to where it was found.


Following reports of sewer alligators in the 1930s, the story built up over the decades and became more of a contemporary legend. It is questionable how accurate the original stories are, and some have even suggested they are fictions created by Teddy May, who was the Commissioner of Sewers at the time.<ref></ref> Interviews with him were the basis of the first published accounts of sewer alligators. In their honor, February 9 is Alligators in the Sewers Day in Manhattan.
===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 it true 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 amount of alligators, most only about 2-feet, to be living in pipes that emptied into the trunk lines below major streets.


A similar story from 1851 involves feral pigs in the sewers of ], London.<ref name="snopes" />
===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 shot.


⚫ ===Louisiana or Florida to New York City===
==The legend==
Following the reports of sewer alligators in the ]s, the story has built up over the decades and become more of an urban legend. Many have even questioned the extend 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 ] is well known and various versions have been told.


As late as the middle of the 20th century, souvenir shops in ] sold live baby alligators (in small fish tanks) as novelty souvenirs. Tourists from New York City would buy a baby alligator and try to raise it as a pet. When the alligator grew too large for comfort, the family would proceed to flush the reptile down the toilet.<ref>Emery, David. ThoughtCo.com (May 5, 2017).</ref>
⚫ ===Florida to New York===
The original story was that wealthy families would return from vacation from ] to ], 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 ]s. When the alligators grew too large for comfort, the family would proceed to flush the reptiles down the toilet.


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. In Robert Daley's book, 'The World Beneath the City'(1959), he comments that one night a sewer worker in ] was shocked to find a large alligator swimming toward him, what followed were weeks of hunting. The most common story is that the alligators survive and reside within the sewer and reproduce, feeding on rats and garbage, growing to huge sizes and striking fear into sewer workers.{{ref|r5}} In ]'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 albino alligator swimming toward him. Weeks of hunting followed.


The '']'' has this to say on the subject:
===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, thus it would apparently in time lose it's eyesight and the pigment in it's hide and that the reptile would grow to be completely ], pure white in colour with red eyes.


{{blockquote|"According to May, sewer inspectors first reported seeing alligators in 1935, but neither May nor anyone else believed them. "Instead, he set men to watch the sewer walkers to find out how they were obtaining whisky down in the pipes." Persistent reports, however, perhaps including the newspaper item discovered by Coleman, caused May to go down to find out for himself. He found that the reports were true. "The beam of his own flashlight had spotlighted alligators whose length, on the average, was about two feet."
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 site 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.


May started an extermination campaign, using poisoned bait followed by flooding of the side tunnels to flush the beasts out into the major arteries where hunters with ] were
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 offical sightings of these kind of alligators in ], its more likely that it was made up to add a more mysterious side to the legened.
waiting. He announced in 1937 that the 'gators were gone. Reported sightings in 1948 and 1966 were not confirmed.


However, there is no mention of "blind albino" alligators, and May suggests that the baby alligators were dumped down storm drains rather than "flushed down the toilet".<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.2307/541011 | author1 = Fergus, George | title = More on Alligators in the Sewers | jstor = 541011 | journal = The Journal of American Folklore | volume = 55 |issue = #988 | page = 8 | year = 1989 }}</ref>}}
===Disclaimer===
Most experts believe that a sewer is not a fit environment for any alligator, and it would be unlikely to be able to reproduce down there. The animals need warm temperatures all year round. The likelihood of its vulnerability to disease could stop any alligator from lasting long in a city sewer.


An additional reference to the sewer alligator exists in ]'s first novel, '']''<ref>Pynchon, Thomas. Chapter Five: "In Which Stencil Nearly Goes West with an Alligator," ''V'' (J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1963), p. 43.</ref> It fictionalizes the account, stating ] was selling them for a time for 50 cents. Eventually the children became bored with the pets, setting them loose in the streets as well as flushing them into the sewers. Rather than poison, shotguns were used as the remedy. Benny Profane, one of the main characters in the book, continues to hunt them as a full-time job until the population is reduced.
As the majority of sightings indicate the alligators were only small in size they might have been caimans, a member of the crocodile family with a higher tolerance for low temperatures.


A 1973 children's book, ''The Great Escape: Or, The Sewer Story'' by Peter Lippman anthropomorphizes these alligators and has them dress up in disguise as humans and charter an airplane to fly them home to the Florida swamps.
==In popular culture==
The famous urban legend has reached many other mediums since its first development in the early ]s


===Versions including albinos and mutants===
The most prominant reference was the ] film ''Alligator'', starring ],
]]]
] and ]. The film plays off the New York stories and exaggerated stories of the reptile's size. It takes place in ] and features a 36 foot alligator.
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 blind and completely ] (pure white in color with red or pink eyes).{{ref|r6}} Another reason why an albino alligator would retreat to an underground sewer is 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.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/legends/bl-alligators.htm |title=Suggestions that the alligators may have been albino |access-date=December 5, 2005 |archive-date=February 9, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060209234842/http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/legends/bl-alligators.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Some people even spoke of mutant alligators living in the sewers which have been exposed to many different types of toxic chemical waste which altered them, making them deformed and sometimes even larger and with strange colouring. A gigantic mutant alligator based on these myths appears in the 1980 film ''].''<ref></ref>

===Contemporary accounts===
One 1927 account describes an experience of a Pittsburgh Bureau of Highways and Sewers employee who was assigned the task of clearing out a section of sewer pipe on Royal Street in the Northside Section of the city. The account reads, " removed the manhole cover and began to clear an obstruction when he realized that a set of 'evil looking eyes' was staring at him." He then removed a {{convert|3|foot|adj=on}} alligator and took it home with him.<ref>{{cite book | last = White | first = Thomas | title = Forgotten tales of Pennsylvania | publisher = History Press | location = Charleston | year = 2009 | pages =13–14 | isbn = 9781596298125 }}</ref> There are other numerous recent media accounts of alligators occupying storm drains and sewer pipes, all from states in the southern US.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sptimes.com/News/061600/TampaBay/Man_falls_in_with_all.shtml |title=Tampabay: Man falls in with alligator |publisher=Sptimes.com |date=June 16, 2000 |access-date=2014-01-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Josh Harkinson |url=http://www.houstonpress.com/Issues/2006-05-25/news/feature.html |title=Gator Aid – Page 1 – News – Houston |publisher=Houston Press |date=May 25, 2006 |access-date=2014-01-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061030211909/http://www.houstonpress.com/Issues/2006-05-25/news/feature.html |archive-date=October 30, 2006 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Richard Connelly |url=http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2005-01-27/hairballs.html |title=Love It, Fear It – Page 1 – News – Houston |publisher=Houston Press |date=January 27, 2005 |access-date=2014-01-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100121181230/http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2005-01-27/hairballs.html |archive-date=January 21, 2010 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wftv.com/news/5072585/detail.html |title=Alligator Pulled From Ormond Beach Sewer Pipe |publisher=www.wftv.com |date=October 7, 2005 |access-date=2014-01-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927141857/http://www.wftv.com/news/5072585/detail.html |archive-date=September 27, 2011 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

In ], ], a ] was captured by ]s in the sewers below the ] bridge on March 7, 1984.<ref></ref> The crocodile, named Eleonore (or Eleanore),<ref></ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gee |first=Oliver |date=2018-09-09 |title=Meet Eleonore, the crocodile found in the Paris sewers in 1984 |url=https://theearfultower.com/2018/09/09/meet-eleonore-the-crocodile-found-in-the-paris-sewers-in-1984/ |access-date=2024-05-06 |website=The Earful Tower |language=en-US}}</ref> lived at the ] in ] and died in May 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.citymetric.com/yes-they-really-have-found-alligators-new-york-sewer-system-102 |title=Alligators in NY sewers |access-date=September 11, 2017 |archive-date=August 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807010842/https://www.citymetric.com/yes-they-really-have-found-alligators-new-york-sewer-system-102 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref></ref>

A {{convert|2|ft|m|adj=on}} baby alligator was caught in August 2010 by the ] in the sewers in ].<ref></ref> However, it is unlikely that a fully grown adult would survive for long in New York, due to the cold winter temperatures.<ref></ref>

Alligators have been sighted in the drains and sewers of Florida as recently as 2017, due to many of these waste outlets' backing out onto the ].<ref></ref> During ]s and in the colder winter months, alligators sometimes shelter in convenient drains and hunt for rats to supplement their diet.{{cn|date=May 2020}}

==See also==
* ]
* ]
* ]


==References== ==References==
;Notes
{{Reflist|2}}
;Sources
* ''Urbanlegends.com''. Retrieved April 26, 2010

==External links==
{{Commons category|Sewer alligators}}
* *
* * {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060209234842/http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/legends/bl-alligators.htm |date=February 9, 2006 }}
*
* *
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*


{{Crocs}}
{{Urban legends}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Sewer Alligator}}
]
] ]
]
]
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Latest revision as of 06:05, 12 January 2025

Urban legend

A model of an alligator emerging from a sewer manhole in a shopping center

The sewer alligator is an urban legend centered around alligators that live in sewers outside alligators' native range. Some cities in which sewer alligators have supposedly been found are New York City and Paris. Accounts of fully grown sewer alligators are unproven, but small alligators are sometimes rescued from sewers. Stories date back to the late 1920s and early 1930s; in most instances they are part of contemporary legend.

The New York Times reports the city rescues 100 alligators per year, some directly from homes where they are kept as illegal pets (which can be legally ordered online in other states and are legal to mail when small), and some from outside (where they can attract considerable attention) though mostly above-ground. Though escapees and former pets may survive for a short time in New York sewers, longer-term survival is not possible due to the low temperatures and the bacteria in human feces. Sewer maintenance crews insist there is no underground population of alligators in sewers.

Legend

The legend of alligators inhabiting the sewer system of New York City is a widely circulated urban myth. It suggests that alligators navigate the city's sewers, preying on rats and other refuse, and posing a threat to sewer workers, who are said to carry firearms for protection. According to the lore, these alligators are often described as large and vicious, with some attributing a lack of pigmentation to their purported status as "albinos." The urban myth has permeated popular culture, featuring in various forms of media including books, television shows, and movies. It has also inspired hoaxes and artistic projects, and is commemorated in the city with a quasi-holiday known as Alligator in the Sewer Day, celebrated on February 9.

Following reports of sewer alligators in the 1930s, the story built up over the decades and became more of a contemporary legend. It is questionable how accurate the original stories are, and some have even suggested they are fictions created by Teddy May, who was the Commissioner of Sewers at the time. Interviews with him were the basis of the first published accounts of sewer alligators. In their honor, February 9 is Alligators in the Sewers Day in Manhattan.

A similar story from 1851 involves feral pigs in the sewers of Hampstead, London.

Louisiana or Florida to New York City

As late as the middle of the 20th century, souvenir shops in Florida sold live baby alligators (in small fish tanks) as novelty souvenirs. Tourists from New York City would buy a baby alligator and try to raise it as a pet. When the alligator grew too large for comfort, the family would proceed to flush the reptile down the toilet.

The most common story is that the alligators survive and reside within the sewer and reproduce, feeding on rats and garbage, growing to huge sizes and striking fear into sewer workers. 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 albino alligator swimming toward him. Weeks of hunting followed.

The Journal of American Folklore has this to say on the subject:

"According to May, sewer inspectors first reported seeing alligators in 1935, but neither May nor anyone else believed them. "Instead, he set men to watch the sewer walkers to find out how they were obtaining whisky down in the pipes." Persistent reports, however, perhaps including the newspaper item discovered by Coleman, caused May to go down to find out for himself. He found that the reports were true. "The beam of his own flashlight had spotlighted alligators whose length, on the average, was about two feet."

May started an extermination campaign, using poisoned bait followed by flooding of the side tunnels to flush the beasts out into the major arteries where hunters with .22 rifles were waiting. He announced in 1937 that the 'gators were gone. Reported sightings in 1948 and 1966 were not confirmed.

However, there is no mention of "blind albino" alligators, and May suggests that the baby alligators were dumped down storm drains rather than "flushed down the toilet".

An additional reference to the sewer alligator exists in Thomas Pynchon's first novel, V. It fictionalizes the account, stating Macy's was selling them for a time for 50 cents. Eventually the children became bored with the pets, setting them loose in the streets as well as flushing them into the sewers. Rather than poison, shotguns were used as the remedy. Benny Profane, one of the main characters in the book, continues to hunt them as a full-time job until the population is reduced.

A 1973 children's book, The Great Escape: Or, The Sewer Story by Peter Lippman anthropomorphizes these alligators and has them dress up in disguise as humans and charter an airplane to fly them home to the Florida swamps.

Versions including albinos and mutants

Close-up of a captive albino alligator
An albino alligator at the California Academy of Sciences

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 blind and completely albino (pure white in color with red or pink eyes). Another reason why an albino alligator would retreat to an underground sewer is 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.

Some people even spoke of mutant alligators living in the sewers which have been exposed to many different types of toxic chemical waste which altered them, making them deformed and sometimes even larger and with strange colouring. A gigantic mutant alligator based on these myths appears in the 1980 film Alligator.

Contemporary accounts

One 1927 account describes an experience of a Pittsburgh Bureau of Highways and Sewers employee who was assigned the task of clearing out a section of sewer pipe on Royal Street in the Northside Section of the city. The account reads, " removed the manhole cover and began to clear an obstruction when he realized that a set of 'evil looking eyes' was staring at him." He then removed a 3-foot (0.91 m) alligator and took it home with him. There are other numerous recent media accounts of alligators occupying storm drains and sewer pipes, all from states in the southern US.

In Paris, France, a Nile crocodile was captured by firefighters in the sewers below the Pont Neuf bridge on March 7, 1984. The crocodile, named Eleonore (or Eleanore), lived at the Aquarium in Vannes and died in May 2022.

A 2-foot (0.61 m) baby alligator was caught in August 2010 by the NYPD in the sewers in Queens. However, it is unlikely that a fully grown adult would survive for long in New York, due to the cold winter temperatures.

Alligators have been sighted in the drains and sewers of Florida as recently as 2017, due to many of these waste outlets' backing out onto the swamps. During storm surges and in the colder winter months, alligators sometimes shelter in convenient drains and hunt for rats to supplement their diet.

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ Corey Kilgannon (February 26, 2020). "The Truth About Alligators in the Sewers of New York". The New York Times.
  2. ^ David Mikkelson (July 10, 1999). "Can Alligators Live in Sewers?".
  3. Kilgannon, Corey (February 26, 2020). "The Truth About Alligators in the Sewers of New York". The New York Times.
  4. "2014 Alligators in the Sewers Day". NYC H2O. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  5. Live Science
  6. Emery, David. "Alligators in the Sewers of New York: Is it true that giant albino alligators inhabit the sewers of New York City?" ThoughtCo.com (May 5, 2017).
  7. Fergus, George (1989). "More on Alligators in the Sewers". The Journal of American Folklore. 55 (#988): 8. doi:10.2307/541011. JSTOR 541011.
  8. Pynchon, Thomas. Chapter Five: "In Which Stencil Nearly Goes West with an Alligator," V (J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1963), p. 43.
  9. "Suggestions that the alligators may have been albino". Archived from the original on February 9, 2006. Retrieved December 5, 2005.
  10. Alligator film
  11. White, Thomas (2009). Forgotten tales of Pennsylvania. Charleston: History Press. pp. 13–14. ISBN 9781596298125.
  12. "Tampabay: Man falls in with alligator". Sptimes.com. June 16, 2000. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  13. Josh Harkinson (May 25, 2006). "Gator Aid – Page 1 – News – Houston". Houston Press. Archived from the original on October 30, 2006. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  14. Richard Connelly (January 27, 2005). "Love It, Fear It – Page 1 – News – Houston". Houston Press. Archived from the original on January 21, 2010. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  15. "Alligator Pulled From Ormond Beach Sewer Pipe". www.wftv.com. October 7, 2005. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  16. French news report
  17. Video of Eleanor
  18. Gee, Oliver (September 9, 2018). "Meet Eleonore, the crocodile found in the Paris sewers in 1984". The Earful Tower. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  19. "Alligators in NY sewers". Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  20. Eleanor the crocodile
  21. Time Magazine
  22. Live Science
  23. 9 ft alligator pulled from sewer
Sources

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