LIKE most East Coast transplants, Reggie has adapted well to his newfound home in Los Angeles.
The 7-foot alligator that's lived in Harbor City's Lake Machado since June has spawned a fan base, at least one dedicated blog, a "free Reggie" T-shirt business and a growing reputation for humbling out-of-state gator wranglers and city officials determined to catch him. He has clearly garnered more media attention in eight weeks than his ailing domicile -- Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park -- has mustered in the last 20 years.
Liability issues aside, Reggie (gender unknown) is coldblooded proof that a neglected urban L.A. park can be surprisingly gator-friendly. And, experts say, with ample critters to eat and a healthy immune system, he could thrive for quite a while in his adopted home. There may even be a slight upside to the park's most anomalous nonnative to date.
"I hope he's eating the \o7Natrix \f7water snakes, red-eared slider turtles, bullfrogs and nonnative fish -- all invaders that have wiped out many of the park's native species," says Lomita-based naturalist Martin Byhower. "This alligator can't stay forever, and God forbid if any more are dumped in there. But in the meantime, I see it like hiring goats. For a while, it can do some good."
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A stressed ecology
LOTS of things have existed in this park over the millenniums. Saber-toothed tigers, grizzly bears and at least a few hundred bird species have all reportedly thrived in this no-longer-ageless patch of willows, wetlands and barbecue grills hemmed by the 110 Freeway, Vermont Avenue and an oil refinery.
Largemouth bass (sizable, edible ones) not too long ago inhabited the 240-acre park's centerpiece, Lake Machado. A tenacious homeless population has claimed the park's north end. Pets are abandoned in the park -- dogs, cats, guinea pigs, you name it -- joining an increasingly distressed ecology that local naturalists have called the largest remaining piece of native riparian forest and freshwater marsh in coastal Los Angeles, albeit one warped with years of pollution problems and invasive species. But now all eyes are peeled for Reggie, who's enjoying the hot, dry weather, eating up sunfish and carp, bullfrogs and turtles -- and hiding out.
"The American alligator is a species that's more than 2 million years old," says Louis Guillette, a professor of zoology at the University of Florida in Gainesville who lives on a lake that's home to a 10-foot alligator. "It's really an amazingly resilient and flexible animal."
