Chucky, the lost alligator, back home in Alabama zoo

By Michael Grunwald
The Washington Post

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After creating a national stir when he disappeared last week during Hurricane Ivan, the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo's star attraction was located Tuesday night in a sludgy drainage ditch inside the zoo grounds. A team of gator trackers captured him with a noose and heavy duct tape. State troopers and police officers then helped haul him to a bear pen, before returning him to the shallow pond where he has spent the past 15 years.

"He was lost and scared, the poor guy," said Tim Williams, a gator wrestler and media spokesman for Gatorland, an Orlando park that sent a team of experts to search for Chucky. "He's happy to be home."

Chucky is used to hand-fed chicken lunches, but he enjoyed a big meal before the hurricane, and gators can endure long periods without food. Zoo officials were less worried that he would starve and more worried that he would eat; Chucky has learned to associate people with food.

"We're glad he's home, and we're glad he's no longer a danger," zoo director Patty Hall said. "Tomorrow, he'll get his chicken again."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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