W-File: ms_allig.html

Type: Miscellaneous
Date: July 1976
Location: Monroe

Source: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Sun, July 21, 1976

Wisconsin farm pond site of the great 'gator hunt'

Monroe, Wis. (UPI) - An alligator-like footprint, a mysterious bellow like a "sick cow" and strange splashing noises in a farm pond have touched off an alligator hunt in this unlikely spot.

Tom Neumann, 14, discovered the footprint - the first evidence since 1971 that a mail order alligator from Florida that escaped on the farm may have survived Wisconsin winters to grow to a six-foot adult.

Tom's mother said the footprint was a mystery and the pond had been dredged without further signs of the alligator.

Young Neumann said the prints of four clawlike toes and a heel measured about four inches from back to front.

Mrs. Neumann said her children have been swimming in the pond regularly and had been hearing splashing noises, particularly at night, but had never seen anything unusual.

Zoo official Ray Pawley asked her if they had ever heard anything like a mating call and she said they had heard bellows "like a sick cow".

"That could be an alligator seeking a mate," Pawley told her.