(Council Bluffs) A report of an alligator at Big Lake Park in Council Bluffs last week caused quite a stir.
A kayaker’s social media post about an alligator and several babies swimming in the lake proved to be false upon investigation by the Iowa DNR. DNR Fisheries Biologist Bryan Hayes says, “That set off a firestorm so the DNR started getting calls to see if it was true. We had calls from TV stations wanting to send reporters and get footage.”
Hayes says a conservation officer determined what the sighting truly was. “It turns out the report was not totally accurate. They recreated the photo and the ‘mom alligator’ turned out to be a log. The ‘babies’ that were swimming around were actually gar.”
Hayes says the DNR from time to time gets reports such as these involving mountain lions and bears. “Sometimes the reports are substantiated with evidence and other times they go unproven. It’s part of the things that the DNR does is to investigate reports of unnatural things or things that aren’t commonly found in the state.”
Alligators have been spotted in Iowa in the past, but it’s an extremely rare occurrence and they are typically pets that have somehow gotten loose.
