PLAINFIELD, Ill. (STNG) -- After days of watching and baiting with chicken legs, officials say they have caught the 4-foot American alligator vacationing at the heron rookery in Lake Renwick near southwest suburban Plainfield.
The alligator first was spotted Saturday lazing on a log near a group of black crowned night herons. Will County Forest Preserve District officials called in the Chicago Herpetological Society Monday.
Then it was a waiting game. Until Thursday.
Officials say the gator likely was a pet placed in the lake by someone. Fully-grown American alligators are usually 12 to 16 feet long. They said it looked as though it had been in Lake Renwick no more than a couple of weeks, judging by how clean it was.
It would eat anything it could catch -- including birds.
Designated the official state reptile of Florida in 1987, American alligators are native to the southeastern United States.
In June, an American alligator was pulled out of the Chicago river. In 2005, a resident of Joliet's West Side discovered a 4-foot alligator sitting on his driveway one morning.
It is illegal to own, buy or sell an alligator in Illinois.
Copyright 2008 STNG Wire, The Chicago Sun-Times. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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