Alligators In The Sewers

by Kandice Thompson

Real Alligators of the Sewers, by: The Crazz Files

Many people believe the myth of alligators living in the sewers. Many people also believe that alligators are more likely to live in the big cities with cold weather. Not like Miami, where alligators are popular there, but in a cold city like New York, alligators are not. Living in cold cities, alligators would not be able to live in the sewers because they are reptiles, and reptiles are cold blooded. In the city, Miami, alligators are usually normal. As stated on http://animalquestions.org/reptiles/alligators/ “Although it is true that alligator attacks on humans have occurred from time to time, as a general rule alligators do not typically attack humans unless provoked in some way first.” Most cases, there are some people who will wrestle with alligators just for fun, but usually it is known to just ignore them and not make them feel threatened. Alligators would also not be able to live in cold climate sewers because of the diseases that might be in them. There are all types of things that are in sewers. There is sewage, diseases, and disposal from homes that transport into the sewer system. Living in the sewers , alligators would not be able to survive in that type of environment with all of the disposal in the sewers.

There are many different stories on how exactly alligators get into the sewer system. But there are questions if it is true, or just a myth. In the late nineteen twenties and early nineteen thirties there was a popular story of a group of kids who was shoveling snow into a manhole. In that manhole, an alligator was found. No evidence was shown because the alligator attacked the children making the children with no choice but to kill it. Another one of the big stories on how alligators might have ended up into the sewers was by families giving their children baby alligators as pets. When the alligator grows too big and the family was unable to handle the reptiles, they would flush the creatures down the toilet.

On some accounts about alligators, there was pictures and videos to show evidence of alligators in the sewers. Some pictures showed construction pulling out an alligators with rope around the mouth to keep it from attacking. Other evidence that was given was a video on an alligator standing still in a drain just staring at the camera. The alligator did not move or attack. But one thing that stood out in the video was a ball in front of the alligator. Possibly the reptile was looking for someone or something to come down and get the ball, so it could attack.

Work cited:
“Alligator Found In Uptown Sewer.” New York Times, 10 Feb. 1935, http://www.sewerhistory.org/grfx/misc/critters.htm. 22 Oct. 2018

“Alligators in the Sewers”. Sewer History, 2004, http://www.sewerhistory.org/grfx/misc/critters.htm.

Bartholomew, Robert E. “Alligators in the Sewers!” Skeptic, vol. 21, no. 1, Mar. 2016, pp.60-61 http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=113837291&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Gormley, Jesse. “Could Alligators Survive In The Sewers of New York City?” Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, July 2018, https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/alligators-cant-live-in-the-sewers/.

Mikkelson, David. “ Do Alligators Live in the Sewers?” Snopes, 10 July 1999, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/alligators-sewers/.

Radford,Benjamin. “Do Alligators Really Live In New York City Sewers?” LiveScience, 3 June 2011, https://www.livescience.com/33322-alligators-crocodiles-new-york-city-sewers.html.

Speed, Barbara.“Yes, They Really Have Found Alligators in the New York Sewer System.” City Metric, 12 Aug, 2014, https://www.citymetric.com/yes-they-really-have-found-alligators-new-york-sewer-system-102

“Man Discovers Huge Alligator Hiding In Sewer Outside His Home.” Youtube, 13 Dec. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCWoxeOUJzc.

“Do Alligators Attack Humans?”, Animal Questions, 2018, http://animalquestions.org/reptiles/alligators/. 26 Oct. 2018.

Links for further research:
“Do Alligators Attack Humans?
http://animalquestions.org/reptiles/alligators/
Although crocodiles attack anything that moves in their sight, alligators are different. Alligators only attack when they feel threatened or their young is at harm. The female alligators give a warning when they feel they feel like they are being attacked. They give a hissing sound or they will open their mouth to let you know, to back off. Once you back off, then you won't be a meal. Most alligators eat fish but if they are hungry enough they will eat and find anything up to human size.

“Do Alligators Hibernate”
http://animalquestions.org/reptiles/alligators/do-alligators-hibernate/
Alligators are cold blooded.They have to stay in warm areas in order to live. Alligators have common sense to move to different locations to find heat. If the environment is too cold for them, they will try to go underground to find warmth. Even though they need warmth to live they are able to be in 40 degree Fahrenheit climate.

“Alligators of the Sewer- Real Ones!”
http://crazzfiles.com/alligators-of-the-sewers-real-ones/
In the early nineteen hundreds, an alligator was found in the sewers of New York City. New York City, Commissioner of Sewers, Teddy May, was told many stories on alligators living in the sewers, but he did not want to listen to them at first. He decided to investigate himself after hearing so many stories.

Crocs In the Sewers

Tabatha Grant-Ravenell

Crocodiles in the sewers the urban legend founded in the streets of New York City.  Crocodiles in the sewers or as authors would call them alligators. They were stink feces caring species. They are known for their capability to close their nostrils to undergo a transition to interact with the strong toxic fumes for their survival. The crocodiles typically live in smaller enclosed areas of the sewers so they can more easily observe their surroundings. The stink sewer crocodiles have the ability to morph their skin into a thick outer shell so their skin can withstand the harsh heat, fumes, odors, and effects of the feces on a normal skin layer.

The foul odor crocodiles have evolved into far more than the normal creature, and in today’s society are utilized for far large purpose. It all started with Marty Hall from Manunst, Michigan who was both blind and deaf. The national animal society took the crocodiles and trained them to work as service animals allowing disables people, such as Marty, to undergo harsh conditions essentially molding a super human. The crocodiles have almost in a way taught Marty their survival skills, teaching him to use and strength. It is all very questionable to what all of these various authors feel about this hoax. Many people believed that Crocodiles in the sewers were trying to snatch little children through the toilet and take them down to the sewers along with them.

Crocodile searching for a child [newspaper style setup]

 
From another source people did not understand or knew what the meaning of the crocodiles in the sewers was. Only the head officials knew the cause of everything and how the alligators were reacting when people got involved trying to capture one of them they would open their mouths wide and try bite and attack anyone. They say they don’t have photographs or reliable news search. Although it made people believe the urban legend of the Crocodiles in the sewers. They said that every Monday the city would celebrate the urban legend. They wanted people to talk about the other logical legends they have heard because were starting to think that it was true. They wanted to be known to a premise that wasn’t true. There couldn’t find other urban legends that were located in the New York area but people were more focused on Crocodiles in the sewers.


Work Cited:
Salazar, Cristian. "Alligators in the sewer and more urban legends and hoaxes that fooled NYC." amNewYork (New York, NY) 9 Feb. 2015, Lifestyle.NewsBank.Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Links for further Research:
"Weird New York."Weird New York.Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
"Crocodiles In The Sewers (New York)." Prezi.com.Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Alligators in the Sewers

Author: Cameron Hasty

"Albino Alligator" climbing from manhole.

We all know New York City to be a fun and mysterious place, full of strange and exciting things. The landscape is marked by some of the tallest buildings in the United States, including the Empire State Building. The traffic on the streets of New York is a trademark of the “Big City”. As interesting and monumental as these things are, something even more interesting may be lurking below the streets of busy New York City.

 In the late 1920s, families from New York would normally take summer vacations to Florida, often getting pet alligators to bring home. However, once these alligators got too big for comfort, they would be flushed down the toilet. This is where the myth comes into play. According to several sources, once these alligators were flushed down the toilets, they would then go down into the sewer system. Once in the sewer system, the alligators would grow and breed. These alligators are said to be albino because of lack of sunlight, causing their hide to fade to white and their eyes to turn red. Is there any truth to this myth?

A.G. Sulzberger of The New York Times wrote an article about the book written in 1959 that sparked much interest in this urban legend, “The World Beneath the City” by Robert Daley. In this book, Daley interviews the former superintendent of city sewers, Teddy May. For a long time, Mr. May rejected the idea of there being any alligators in his sewer systems, and denied the reports of such. An article from February 10, 1935, reported the finding of an alligator in an uptown sewer. This report turned out to be true; however, the likelihood of the alligator actually living down in the sewer system is widely doubted. Teddy May grew tired of the banter about the alligators in the sewers, so he decided to go down there himself to put this myth to rest once and for all. However, we was shocked at what he found when he entered the underground pipes. This is an excerpt from Daley’s book of what Mr. May had to say:

            Alligators serenely paddling around in his sewers. The beam of his own flashlight had spotlighted alligators whose length, on the average, was about two feet. Some may have been longer. Avoiding the swift current of the trunk lines under major avenues, the beasts had wormed up the smaller pipes under less important neighborhoods, and there Teddy had found them. The colony appeared to have settled contentedly under the very streets of the busiest city in the world. (Daley)

Teddy May was then convinced that the legend was true. However, it is known that Mr. May has a tendency to “stretch the truth” when it comes to his stories, at times. So, did he really see little alligators swimming around? We will never know. There are those who are very skeptical of the idea.

Manny Fernandez of The New York Times interviewed a long-time employee of the New York City sewer systems, Luis Baerga. Baerga describes the layout of the sewer systems, as well as his hypothesis for the beginning of the urban legend. He believes the stories originated from a photograph of an alligator being removed from the sewer that hung in the old Bureau of Sewers. Many who saw this photo assumed the city to be New York City. However, Baerga suggests the picture was actually taken in Florida. According to this article, there is not much truth to the myth of alligators being in the New York sewers. There is still no real answer to the question: “Do alligators live in the sewers of New York City?” There has, however, been a number of sightings of alligators in sewer lines.

Numerous videos on YouTube display fully grown alligators in sewer lines. Granted, these gators are not necessarily in the New York City sewers, there is proof that they can live down there. In the particular video I watched, a robotic camera goes down below the city streets of Leeds, England. This robot was launched in order to carry out a routine inspection of the sewer lines. The robot travelled down the main line and right away, a large alligator was laying in the moving waters. As the robot travelled further down the main line, there was a circular opening to the left with a growling noise emerging from the pipe. The robot stopped, turned to the left, and captured the sight of an angry alligator lying in the pipeline of the sewer, jaws opened. Although the color of these creatures could not be fully determined through this video, I can tell the color is not quite as dark as normal alligators. This could confirm the theory of the loss of deep color of these underground beasts. However, there is a lack of evidence showing the cause of the alligators being there due to being flushed down the toilet.

In another YouTube video I watched, NY Post reports a caiman alligator being found on the sidewalk after crawling out of the sewer. A caiman alligator is a small species of alligator. The caiman in this video was only about a foot and a half long. This is eerily similar to the alligators Teddy May described seeing on his trip down there. In this video, the officer holding the animal said it was most likely a pet somebody had dumped near the sewer. He went on to say that if this caiman had been left in the city, it would not have survived due to lack of nutrients needed for survival. If this is true, there would not be much hope for a small alligator to survive for a long period of time in the deep, dark sewers of New York City.

I believe there are and were alligators in the sewer system of New York City. There is strong evidence to prove that alligators can survive in the sewers, but not enough evidence to suggest they can remain down there for long periods of time. Because no evidence has been provided to suggest the real reason for the alligators being in the sewers, I cannot assume they were flushed down the toilet. So, in the words of Mythbusters, this myth is busted.

Works Cited:

Daley, Robert. The World Beneath the City. New York, 1959. Print.

Fernandez, Manny. “Miles of Sewer Lines, and He Knows Them Well.” The New York Times. 16 Feb. 2011. Web. 14 Oct. 2012.

Kleen, Michael. “aprilfool.” Photograph. Legends and Lore of Illinois. 26 Aug. 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2012.

New York Post. “Sewer Gator-Aid- New York Post.” Youtube. Web. 23 Aug. 2010. 15 Oct. 2012.

Sulzberger, A.G. “The Book Behind the Sewer-Alligator Legend.” The New York Times. 23 Nov. 2009. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.

Yorkshirewatertube. “Crocodile Submerged in bowels of Leeds city sewer.” Youtube. Web. 31 Mar. 2009. 14 Oct. 2012.

Links for further research:

The Sewergator Sanctuaryhttp://www.sewergator.com/All about the history of “sewergators.”

Alligators in the Sewers- An Urban Legendhttp://urbanlegends.about.com/od/alligators/a/sewer_gators.htmThe story behind the beginning of the “Alligators in the Sewers” myth.

snopes.com: Alligators in New York Sewershttp://www.snopes.com/critters/lurkers/gator.aspShoots down the myth about alligators in the sewers.