From The New York Times, June 30, 1932:

STALK ALLIGATORS IN BRONX RIVER LAIR

Park Police Posse Ordered on Expedition to Capture Reptiles in Westchester "Jungle."

BOYS REPORT “SWARMS”

Assert They Saw at Least Two or Maybe Three in Water on Finding 36-Inch Specimen, Dead.

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.

TUCKAHOE, N.Y., June 29.—Two patrolmen of the Westchester County parkway police will leave here at dawn tomorrow on an expedition along the jungles of the Bronx River to capture alligators for the Bronx Zoo. The police explorers plan to fight their way down the river to Crestwood Lake, where native boys reported recently that the reptiles had been seen sporting in the water.

The expedition was organized by Chief William J. Byrne of the parkway police after two small boys had appeared at headquarters last night to show the chief a dead alligator, about thirty-six inches long, which they said they had captured along the shore of the lake. The boys told the chief that the Bronx River, of which the lake is a part, had been “swarming” with at least two or three other alligators.

After carefully examining the reptile and discussing the capture with several of his men, the police chief concluded that it probably had been a household pet that had escaped or had been released by its owner for various reasons, including an increase in size that had made it a household burden. The police chief said that he was sorry the reptile had been killed. He said that he was sending two of his best men on a search for other alligators because of a humanitarian interest in such a rare inhabitant of the Bronx River and with the hope the the possible success of his explorers would be of scientific interest to the zoo.

The start of the explorers was delayed today because of fear on the part of the police chief that a species of human beings, known as baseball players, who congregate on the shores of the lake, would interfere with the expedition. A preliminary search along the river banks was interrupted today by a group of small boys who insisted on following the uniformed men with the interest and alertness of amateur detectives.

The belief that the playing of games near the water’s edge would frighten the prospective zoo inhabitants into deep water led the chief to set the start for dawn. While the small boys are sleeping peacefully the policemen will move cautiously through the tangled underbrush at the river's edge, alert with poised nets and a variety of bait.

The proper method of catching an alligator alive was the subject of a conference this afternoon between the police chief and his men. The police chief admitted that he was not familiar with the habits of reptiles and bemoaned the lack of available books on the subject. Some one suggested that one of the police explorers, who sings bass in the police quartet, ought to practice the alligator mating call, which the police chief learned was a cross between the bark of a dog and the grunt of a pig.

A hurried visitor to Police Headquarters told the police chief that a piece of liver would make an alligator literally walk across the water to shore, and that it could be captured alive easily with the type of net generally used by butterfly-chasers. The police chief put in a requisition for enough liver to feed a good-sized alligator, and one of his men promised to lend the explorers a fishing net for the expedition.

 

Copyright 1932 The New York Times

Note: a follow-up story two days later announced the abandonment of the hunt after further investigation cast doubt on the boys’ report of “swarms” of alligators, although the dead ‘gator (actually a crocodile) did in fact turn out to be an escaped pet.

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