Caiman captured in High Park pond

[spaminator]

Caiman captured in High Park pond
July 7, 2014
Zoo keepers from Reptilia captured the creature on Monday.
Caiman captured in High Park pond | CityNews
Alligator-like reptile captured in High Park pond
July 7, 2014
An unwanted visitor was ousted from High Park’s Catfish Pond on Monday after a GTA zoo captured and removed an alligator-like reptile from the water.
Alligator-like reptile captured in High Park pond | CityNews
Gotcha!
By Maryam Shah ,Toronto Sun
First posted: Monday, July 07, 2014 08:26 PM EDT | Updated: Monday, July 07, 2014 09:49 PM EDT
TORONTO ─ Dozens watched as a 60-centimetre caiman was captured in a High Park pond Monday.
A type of alligator not native to Canada, the caiman would likely not have fared well, especially at night, said Toronto Animal Services spokesman Fiona Vendam.
“In the long run, they wouldn’t withstand the cold,” she said. “Once it got cold at night, they would die.”
The caiman was initially captured on video by High Park resident Teghan Stadnyk. Her brother later posted the video to YouTube and Reddit, where it circulated and attracted media attention.
Stadnyk said she spotted the reptile in a narrow body of water next to Grenadier Pond on Sunday afternoon.
“I was just in my backyard and we saw it floating there,” the 28-year-old said. “He splashed around and moved around a little and that was about it.”
She only saw one in the water and it appeared to be the length of an adult’s arm.
“I think it might be somebody’s pet,” Stadnyk said.
Animal Services spokesman Tammy Robbinson said there’s a good chance it’s an abandoned illegal pet.
“They’re not natural to Canada, so that would be our best guess,” she said. “If you could remind people to never release animals into the wild, that would be great.”
The caiman is in good shape after being fished out of the water by experts from Reptilia, a reptile zoo in the GTA, according to animal services.
Reptilia manager Cheryl Sheridan said the caiman is native to South and Central America and could “get up to as much as eight feet long” over two decades, but would likely be smaller.
The next step is to find a suitable home for the reptile “so that he can hopefully grow up and hopefully help to educate people maybe on why they’re not the best pets and educate them about the conservation of their species,” Sheridan said.

Lee Parker, from Reptilia, stalked and grabbed a caiman in a High Park pond. (MICHAEL PEAKE, Toronto Sun)
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Gotcha! | Caiman caught in High Park | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

 

[SLM]

These critters are turning up everywhere!

Greek authorities confirm 6 foot crocodile in lake

 

[taxslave]

This is the problem with permitting the sale of exotic pets. Once they escape or the owners get bored with them they start to infest the area where there is no natural preditors. We let one boat load of whites land here in the late 1400's as a couriosity and look what happened.

 

[gopher]

Captured it with his hands? Wow - those things are quick and can give a nasty bite! But they are warm blooded and perhaps the cold water slowed him down. Whew!

 

[spaminator]

High Park caiman OK, but in quarantine
By Maryam Shah ,Toronto Sun
First posted: Tuesday, July 08, 2014 06:04 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, July 08, 2014 06:13 PM EDT
A caiman captured in a High Park-area pond on Monday is currently in quarantine at a reptile zoo in Vaughan.
“It seems to have settled in well overnight,” said Lee Parker, manager of Reptilia.
Parker snuck up behind the 18-month-old caiman — a type of crocodile native to Central and South America — and grabbed the reptile in the pond on Monday as spectators looked on.
“We’re not sure (yet) if it’s a male or female,” Parker said.
He added a naming competition will likely be held soon to christen the caiman — likely an abandoned illegal pet which showed signs of old injuries.
“It’s missing one toe on each foot,” he said. “The tip of its tail is missing and it also has an old scar on the side of its belly.”
The injuries and scars likely come from time spent in an enclosure with other caimans, said Parker.
He added that when pet owners become bored with exotic acquatic reptiles — or afraid of their growing size as a caiman can grow more than two-metres long — they often dump it in a nearby body of water.
“They just let it go,” he said. “The thing is, it would’ve survived through the summer but it would never have survived through the winter.
A large raccoon or bird of prey could have also easily caught the young caiman. While young, the creatures feed on fish, frogs, insects, and small crustaceans and graduate to birds and small mammals as they grow.
“They’re not an aggressive animal,” Parker said. “They are pretty vulnerable to predation. They don’t get big enough to eat people” even though they have powerful jaws and “needle-sharp teeth.”
Councillor Sarah Doucette joked about the caiman incident at council on Tuesday and pointed out the critter now has a Twitter account.
“He just wanted me to confirm everyone knows he is doing well,” Doucette said.
Once it clears quarantine, handlers will try to find the caiman a permanent home.
— With files from Don Peat
Reptilia's Lee Parker is pictured as he caught a caiman in a High Park area pond. (MICHAEL PEAKE, Toronto Sun)

High Park caiman OK, but in quarantine | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun