Doh. It turns out it was only a little lizard. 
New Yorkers need to come to Florida to see what a real Alligator looks like.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Central Park "alligator" that became the stuff of legend, at least for a few days, was captured by a professional alligator wrestler, but it turned out not to be an alligator at all.
Instead, the 2-foot-long lizard, first spotted by park visitors on Saturday cavorting in the Harlem Meer in the park's northern end, was actually a South American spectacled caiman, a close relative of the alligator.
"Here's the culprit," said Mike Bailey, 23, an alligator wrangler from Florida who volunteered his services to rescue New Yorkers from the little lizard he held in his hands.
Bailey's wife Tina late on Thursday nabbed the caiman, which had eluded capture by parks department employees and police for days, but took the Baileys about 45 minutes to accomplish.
"The hardest thing we had to deal with was all the lights in our eyes," said Bailey, who had to contend with a media horde as he hunted.
The reptile's exploits have been followed closely around the world. According to a persistent urban legend, alligators skulk in the city's sewers, but the creatures could never endure a New York winter underground.
The captured caiman, which will either end up being returned to the wild or placed in a zoo, is thought to have been set loose by someone who no longer wanted it as a pet.
The last gator scare to hit Gotham was in July 1997, after someone transferred an illegal pet alligator from a bathtub to a lake in Queens.
June 22, 2001 09:03 AM ET
New Yorkers need to come to Florida to see what a real Alligator looks like. NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Central Park "alligator" that became the stuff of legend, at least for a few days, was captured by a professional alligator wrestler, but it turned out not to be an alligator at all.
Instead, the 2-foot-long lizard, first spotted by park visitors on Saturday cavorting in the Harlem Meer in the park's northern end, was actually a South American spectacled caiman, a close relative of the alligator.
"Here's the culprit," said Mike Bailey, 23, an alligator wrangler from Florida who volunteered his services to rescue New Yorkers from the little lizard he held in his hands.
Bailey's wife Tina late on Thursday nabbed the caiman, which had eluded capture by parks department employees and police for days, but took the Baileys about 45 minutes to accomplish.
"The hardest thing we had to deal with was all the lights in our eyes," said Bailey, who had to contend with a media horde as he hunted.
The reptile's exploits have been followed closely around the world. According to a persistent urban legend, alligators skulk in the city's sewers, but the creatures could never endure a New York winter underground.
The captured caiman, which will either end up being returned to the wild or placed in a zoo, is thought to have been set loose by someone who no longer wanted it as a pet.
The last gator scare to hit Gotham was in July 1997, after someone transferred an illegal pet alligator from a bathtub to a lake in Queens.
June 22, 2001 09:03 AM ET
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