Charles River Baby Alligator Caught, Joining Educational Show

Rower’s-Eye View of a Wild Morning

As some of you know, I am the proud dad of a Boston College rower. She starts each day with a three hour row on the Charles River in Boston that often starts before the sun is fully up.

I was having trouble focusing on the morning show early this morning after a viral headline that I read before coming into work. Apparently, a baby alligator was spotted swimming around the Charles River’s edge.

At first glance, I dismissed the clip as more AI nonsense, but it wasn’t. Witnesses described a reptile about 18 inches long swimming along near the water’s edge. Cute? Maybe. Still an alligator? Definitely.

The Capture and Collective Exhale

Fun 107 can confirm that the renegade alligator has been captured by Joe’s Crazy Critters, a fact confirmed by Joe himself. The professional animal caretaker waited til after dark last night to search for the baby gator near the last place he had been spotted. "Believe it or not, it's actually easier to track animals at night because your eyes are only looking at one thing at a time. In the day your eyes see everything."

Could a Baby Alligator Survive a New England Winter?

According to Joe, the short answer is no. Gators are cold-blooded and not built for a Boston freeze. The bigger question was where it came from. Multiple baby gator sightings over the past week suggested either one very busy baby or more than one loose reptile. Either way, the Charles is no place for a Florida transplant..

How Did it the Gator Get There?

Joe suspects that someone bought the alligator out of state, then decided to get rid of it when it became too big. "Doing this is a death sentence to the animal, unfortunately, and can pose a risk to the public."

The alligator was brought to the vet, who thought it might have a touch of pneumonia and prescribed some antibiotics. Joe had named the alligator Charles (after the river) and will keep it for his educational animal shows.