Gator Alert! Reptiles In Cottage Lake? -- Not Alligators, But Caimans Found After Reported Sighting

WOODINVILLE - Yesterday was a big day for King County Animal Control. They got a call around 10 a.m.: Gators! Loose in Cottage Lake near Woodinville!

This sort of thing is not the agency's bread and butter. "We're pretty much in the dog and cat business, to be honest with you," said Dan Graves, King County Animal Control chief.

Graves sent three officers out nonetheless. For three hours, they scoured the lakeside with big poles with nooses on the ends, but found neither alligator nor crocodile.

Just an hour later, though, a staffer from King Country Parks Department, also on the scene looking for large amphibious, carnivorous reptiles, found one. By 2:30 p.m., the word was out that the creature - it appeared to be a caiman, like an alligator, only smaller - was contained in the back of a pickup.

That just left one more.

Last night as dark crept over the small park that King County bought just a year ago, Animal Control, the Parks Department and herpetologist Perry Thomson - whose most recent outing was an unsuccessful boa-constrictor hunt in Kent - went in search of the other reported reptile.

"At night, they zip into the water to do their hunting," Thomson said. "That's when they're easily spotted because they're hunting, and their eyes will be above the water."

Caimans' eyes, like those of their larger relatives, glow red in flashlight beams in the dark.

The caimans, which generally live in South America and Asia, were seen Wednesday evening by two Woodinville men in the park to do some fishing.

"We were walking along, and all of a sudden this thing just shot out of the grass and into water about 10 feet," said Mike Peters. "Then it turned around and stuck its head up and was kind of looking at us. My friend Dwight kinda looked at it and said, `It's a crocodile.' "

A crocodile would have been much worse. "The crocodile has more of an attitude," is how Mary Thomson puts it.

"So we were looking at it," Peters said. "And it was looking back at us. It just kind of sat there and watched us. When it swam, it just folded its feet up and swam using its tail, just like the alligators I've seen on TV." It was brown, between three and four feet, Peters said.

The pair walked over to the dock, just like they hadn't seen anything threatening, and told a kayaker. "He didn't believe me, whatsoever," Peters said. But before he left, the kayaker paddled over to the area Peters pointed to.

"He yelled out, `There it is!' Then he said he saw another one. There were two of them."

They wanted to take pictures, but "we were kind of pinned in there," Peters said. "The only way to get back was to walk past there again. So Dwight went looking for clubs. We just started trucking back through there."

They made their way back to the car and brought a camera to the kayaker. Photos were snapped. Authorities were alerted.

And for good reason. Caimans, like alligators, tend to avoid humans, Thomson said. "I don't think you'd have to worry so much about a caiman unless a) the animals are extremely starving or b) provoked."

The caimans, which, authorities say, either escaped or, more likely were dumped at the lake by former owners, could have been eating fish, waterfowl, turtles and small mammals who ventured too near. "Anything and everything that comes within their reach is potential food," Thomson said.

King County Animal Control said there have not been reports of disappearing cats and dogs in the area.

Last time caimans were spotted it was in Green Lake, in 1986.

After generating more than 25 stories and editorials in this newspaper alone - including alligator recipes and crocodile-naming contests - two 2 1/2-foot caimans were found sleeping on shore by a free-lance photographer and part-time state Game Department employee, and by a Metro staffer who decided one night to go "alligator hunting."

The two Seattle caimans, highly undernourished, were taken to the Woodland Park Zoo, where they were fed a diet of minced mouse. One had to be put to death; the other went to Missouri.

The caiman captured yesterday will be living for a time with Mary and Perry Thomson. Perry is the president of the Pacific Northwest Herpetological Society.

"What we're going to do is put it up in a foster-home situation. My wife and I - we have no children - we're going to put it out in our holding area and look for a suitable home or exhibit. If it comes down to it, we'll adopt it ourselves."

Caimans usually run between four and five feet, but they can get up to eight feet, Thomson said. "That's a pretty big caiman."

The King County Parks Department planned to keep Cottage Lake park, which just opened to the public July 4, open.

"We do have people there to tell people what's going on," said John Allen, parks operations assistant. "We'll have people out there until we resolve the captures. We're taking the conservative approach. We'd ask you don't go in the water."