Not long ago, someone was found to be keeping a veritable menagerie in his modest New York apartment—including a full-grown tiger. So what about those "Alligators in the sewers" stories we've all heard? Is this just an urban myth? Or is it entirely possible that right now alligators, or crocodiles or those sharp-toothed caymans are roaming virtually unnoticed (thankfully) in our many hundreds of miles of sewers? And has anyone ever caught one here?
Or, vice versa?

[www.tomostudio.com]

Now that link says it all. That's very funny stuff. I love 8th Ave just for that, the sculptures. It's strange how this artist has so many of his pieces on one platform. In regards to these alligators in our sewers, I think not, although a rat apparently landed in the toliet bowl of a friend recently. Now that's freaky. I have heard about an alligator being caught in Central Park in the lake.

Good link Oracle. I don't know if this an urban myth or not but one would think that if it is so the alligators would be in hibernation for most of the year, they are reptiles after all and New York's climate would not be the best for them, alligators and crocodiles are native to warmer climates. In Australia crocodiles are only in the northern tropical areas but I know from my experience of growing up further south where there were a lot of snakes that reptiles hibernate in cold weather and unless they can lie in the sun and absorb heat they are very sluggish and slow.

That sculpture is amusing. Thanks for the link.

Yet I'm still not convinced that we have a definitive answer. Due to our climatic conditions, alligators might well prefer more southerly locales ... YET ... underground NY is a vast warren of utility systems, including an ample supply of steam (=warmth) and vermin (=food). And not much in the way of competition for America's largest reptilian predator. They're also survivors,
dating from who knows when.

I'd be interested in knowing if any have been captured in this area. Or, if some zoologist would venture an opinion, for the record.

Can anyone verify the story of that 'gator in Central Park Lake?

Peter you may have a point, the warmth from the underground utilities would probably be enough to keep them mobile and they are the ultimate survivors.

Here's a little bit more info on this strange thread.

Urban Legends and Folklore
Alligators in the Sewer

An urban legend

It was once a fad among New Yorkers returning home from Florida vacations to bring back tiny baby alligators for their children to raise as pets. Unfortunately, the babies were destined to grow and outlive their cuteness, at which point their owners resorted to flushing the poor things down the toilet in order to get rid of them.
It seems a few of these hastily disposed-of creatures actually survived in the damp darkness of the New York sewer system and began to breed, with the result that there are now scattered colonies of full-grown alligators living under the streets of New York City. Some say the animals are blind and albino, having lost their eyesight and the pigment in their hides due to the constant darkness in which they dwell.

If there is a grain of truth at the root of this legend, which has bedeviled New York City for the better part of a century, it's the documented capture of an eight-foot alligator down an East Harlem manhole in 1935. Since it was discovered near the river, the best theory anyone could come up with at the time was that the creature had tumbled off a steamer "from the mysterious Everglades, or thereabouts." No one assumed it was a denizen of the sewer system.

The earliest published reference to the legend in what Jan Harold Brunvand calls its "standardized" form — "baby alligator pets, flushed, thrived in sewers" — can be found in Robert Daley's 1959 book, The World Beneath the City, a history of public utilities in New York City. Daley's primary source was a retired sewer official named Teddy May, who claimed that during the 1930s he investigated workers' reports of subterranean saurians and saw a colony of them with his own eyes. He also claimed to have personally seen to their eradication. May was a colorful storyteller if not a particularly reliable one.

Richard M. Dorson writes in America in Legend, published in 1973, that during the 1960s the alligator tale became associated with another bit of sewer lore, the legendary "New York White" marijuana, rumored to be an especially potent, albino strain of the drug descended from stashes hastily flushed down toilets during drug raids. Trouble was (or so the story went), no one was able to harvest the stuff because of all the alligators lurking down where it grew.

For the most part herpetologists agree that city sewers do not provide an environment in which alligators could long thrive, let alone reproduce. The species requires warm temperatures year around and would probably be susceptible to diseases caused by the bacteria found in sewage.

— David Emery

Gee, this was the talk in the office the other day. Someone one of the guys knew had gotten a baby aligator in the mail. It seems they can live without a good source of oxygen for couple of days. Which according to my friend, was why there were always aligator in the sewers theories.

I live in Denver, and several summers ago there was a caymen loose at Washington Park in the largest of the three lakes. That summer our family traipsed over to the park with our flashlights and a fishing net hoping to catch sight of the creature. Our kids of coursed hoped to capture it. It was a great summer with lots of families out doing the same thing. It was never caught to anyones knowledge, but there were several sightings, including from two of the fireman from the station at the park. Sucumbed to winter I guess. My friend said he bets it was one of those $30 mail order gaters. I would hope it's not that easy. It is a great summer family memory though.

[www.snopes.com]

I've always trusted Snopes as a pretty reliable source. I think their article seems to explain it, especially this:

"Nature writer Diane Ackerman has this to say about alligators' longevity under those conditions:

But they couldn't survive for any length of time in the sewers, only a few months at the most, because they can't live long in salmonella or shigella or E. coli, organisms that one usually finds in sewage. Also, alligators live at temperatures between 78 and 90 degrees . . ."

Thanks, guys. I hardly expected such a wealth of information on this topic. I guess none of us have to worry about alligators—albino or otherwise—under our ... er, feet, so to speak. Just huge, breeding reservoirs of salmonella, shigella and E. coli.

Now there's a comforting thought.