7-foot alligator spotted outside Georgia daycare, photos show. ‘Our own personal zoo’
_fitted.png "A 7-foot alligator found refuge under a patio chair on the front porch of a Georgia daycare.")
A Georgia daycare received a surprise visitor: a 7-foot alligator on the front porch.
Angel’s Child Care & Enrichment Center workers told local outlets, including WSAV, that parents spotted the gator sitting under a chair on the building’s front porch during morning drop-off on Wednesday, July 27.
The Savannah Police Department told McClatchy News that it responded to the scene but a local trapper, Jack Douglas, who goes by “Trapper Jack,” did most of the work to remove the animal.
No one was injured, police said, and all of the children were inside when the gator was spotted, according to WTOC.
“For the babies, it was very exciting,” daycare worker Katrina Bostick told WTOC. “It was like, ‘OK, we have our own personal zoo.’”
The daycare is located in “gator country,” Douglas said. The daycare center is surrounded by some of the biggest drainage canals in the area and is half a mile from two ponds.
It is not common for gators to end up inside buildings or on front porches, but it may become a more prevalent issue as swamps and marshes continue to dry up, according to Douglas.
“A lot of our swamps are drying up,” Douglas told McClatchy News in a phone interview. “Even though we’re getting a little rain, it’s not rising the water in the swamps, so they’re running out of water and are on the move a lot trying to find deeper water.”
This story was originally published July 28, 2022 at 2:37 PM with the headline "7-foot alligator spotted outside Georgia daycare, photos show. ‘Our own personal zoo’."
