NEW YORK – The Bronx Zoo has released new information about the alligator found this weekend in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
The nearly five-foot alligator gets a treatment at the zoo. The female was seen inside the park on Sunday and was easily captured by trained animal handlers because she was extremely emaciated, “lethargic and suffering from exposure to cold temperatures,” the zoo said in a statement. Wednesday.
The alligator is still too weak and unresponsive to eat on its own, the zoo said, so it is being tube fed “nutrients and fluids, B vitamins, antibiotics and an antifungal medication.”
When the reptile was captured, it weighed just 15 pounds, less than half what an alligator of its size and age, which authorities estimated at about five or six years old, should weigh.
The zoo said X-rays showed the animal had ingested a four-inch tub plug that still cannot be removed. While it’s not immediately clear where the alligator ate it, it’s possible it was where someone had kept the creature as a pet from before releasing it.
“The alligator is currently in too weakened a condition to attempt to pull the hold,” the Bronx Zoo said in a statement. “We will continue to provide you with supportive care and determine next steps based on how you respond to treatment.”
Alligators are obviously not native to the region, and experts warn that exotic animals can harm local species and the environment. Keeping an alligator as a pet is illegal in New York, as is releasing animals into city parks.
They find an alligator in Prospect Park in Brooklyn.