The search to capture a 4-foot alligator spotted in Humboldt Park Lagoon Tuesday continues—with a large watch party alongside officials hoping to trap it soon.
Witnesses say the creature’s two steely eyes rise above the surface every half hour or so and then sink back into the murky waters of the lagoon.
“Everybody loves animals, so nobody wants nothing to happen to it but at the same time everybody’s worried about the kids,” said Luis Coss, who has been attentively waiting to see the gator.
Crowds were seen gathered for the second day of gator watch, hoping to catch a glimpse of the creature they are now calling “Alex” after Alexander Von Humbolt—the German naturalist the park is named for.
“We have been able to determine it is an American alligator. By species, American alligators is, I don’t want to say friendlier, but more laid back than the crocodiles or caimans,” said a representative of the Chicago Herpetological Society, Bob, who asked NBC 5 not to use his last name.
Bob says so far, the alligator has been making its way around the lagoon, in a leisurely fashion, avoiding the traps that have been set to bring him in.
If he sinks down in there, there's no way to tell where he's at," Bob said. "He could be sitting six inches below surface and I can't know where he is at and you can't jump in the water, you can’t use a net, you can't grab him because you can't see and the last thing you want to do is grab the wrong end of a gator."
Experts say gators can go a week between meals and as long as six months without food.
Bob however says people should not be worried as they don't tend to look at humans as food.
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"He's so scared of all these 5- and 6-foot tall people, when he is only this big,” he said. “I mean realistically, if he's walking across the floor here, you can step on him and kill him."
