Long Island’s alligator problem has snapped back into action.
The Suffolk County SPCA said the ninth gator found on LI in six weeks was discovered in a window well of a Southampton township home on Hampton Street this weekend. The gator, which appeared healthy, was taken to the Star Foundation, an animal rescue agency.
“These are only the ones we know of,” said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County SPCA, who believes there is more than one person dumping the gators. “It is unfair to the animal and poses a dangerous risk to the public by releasing these reptiles.”
All of the gators found have been between two and three feet long. Alligators grow about a foot a year. They cannot survive in the cold.
The first gator was found on the lawn of a Mastic Beach home on Sept. 28, the second was captured at a Wading River golf course Oct. 1 and two more were found in a Baldwin supermarket parking lot Oct. 2 and Oct. 3.
Gator No. 5 was found in the parking lot of an Applebee’s in Shirley on Oct. 7, the sixth turned up around the same time in Yaphank and the seventh gator discovery was made Oct. 20 at Lilly Pond County Park in Lake Ronkonkoma.
Gross said an eighth gator was found on LI recently, but exactly where and when was not immediately clear.
Anyone with information about the alligators is asked to contact the Suffolk County SPCA at 631-382-SPCA (7722).