OAKLAND — Nimitz is just about to be released from reptile rehab and head for a new home in Florida. He appeared very happy about this Thursday morning in his temporary pen at the Oakland Zoo, although it's hard to tell if he was smiling at onlookers or considering them possible snacks.
We'll say smiling, because Nimitz has every reason to be an exuberant American alligator these days. He's come a long way since March, when he was found during a drug bust at a Union City apartment, all 5 feet of him crammed into a fish tank about the same size, his muscles atrophied from lack of exercise and his system weak from a steady diet of hot dogs.Since then, he's been recovering at the Oakland Zoo, learning how
to eat real gator food (rats, mice and fish), regaining his strength, cooling himself in a small pond and basically lounging around in thick grass till the tourists go home.
In about two weeks, he will be traveling in a specially built crate to a permanent residence at Croc Encounters, a 22-acre nonprofit sanctuary in Florida for rescued or endangered reptiles.
"It's been really rewarding for us to see him outside like this, and so healthy. We're proud of the progress he's made," said Margaret Rousser, lead keeper of the children's zoo — and of Nimitz — watching lovingly as he trotted over to his pond for a refreshing morning dip. "When he first came to us, he was very thin for his length," she said. "We've estimated he's about 3 or 4 years old, but it's hard to tell since his growth rate was altered by his limited environment and poor nutrition.
"He was so weak when he got here, he could barely take two steps. His muscles had atrophied pretty badly. And he was frightened. He had never been in sunshine and grass before, and he just stayed huddled up against the wall behind the tortoise exhibit. It took a good two months to get him strong enough that we felt he could go outside and walk through the grass
Nimitz, a confiscated alligator brushes his nose on the fence at the Oakland Zoo Thursday August 21st, 2008. The approximately 3 year old American Alligator will be sent to a sanctuary in Florida. (Mike Lucia/Daily Review) like this."
It's illegal for people to keep an exotic animal as a pet without a permit, and there's a reason for that, Rousser said.
"Not only could such an animal pose a danger, but most people don't have the resources to keep an animal like this, the proper environment or food," she said. "They have no idea how to care for it; the animal grows bigger than they expected and then ends up in a bad situation, or let loose, which poses other problems."
Nimitz was so named by zookeepers because he was found in an apartment on Decoto Road, on the fringe of Interstate 880. On March 14, Union City police officers were conducting a routine probation search at the apartment of 30-year-old Eric Windom when they came across a few
Visitors at the Oakland zoo watch as Nimitz, an alligator that was confiscated in Oakland, recuperates Thursday, August 21st, 2008. The approximately 3 year old American Alligator will be sent to a sanctuary in Florida. (Mike Lucia/Daily Review) surprises: numerous pot plants, other illegal drugs, a handgun and — much to the officers' surprise — an alligator.
Windom, who was arrested on various drug and firearms charges, didn't have a permit for such a critter, so Nimitz had to be confiscated. Animal control and the California Department of Fish & Game were called in to assist six Union City officers in wrangling the gator, with help from over-the-phone advice from the Oakland Zoo.
"We had to get two catch poles to put around the neck and tail," said Fish & Game Warden Jessica Jacobsen. "He was scared, so it wasn't an easy task. Then we were able to get him in one of the cages in the animal control van, and we brought him to the zoo."
The zoo is not usually in the business of rehabbing distressed animals, but where else is a gator gonna go?
"There really aren't that many places around here to rehab an alligator," Rousser said. So they set up a special pen for Nimitz with his own private quarters because he was too small to be with the five full-grown alligators in the zoo's regular exhibit.
He has grown during his zoo stay — not much in length, but in girth. He's 25 pounds now, and when fully grown, he could get up to 300 pounds and 8- to 10-feet long.
He will never be able to go into the wild, even in his native Florida, Rousser said. "It's like taking a person out of New York City and throwing him in the rain forest," she said. "He wouldn't know sources of food or how to survive.
"I'm gonna miss him, but I'm absolutely thrilled he's going to be in a safe place down in Florida, where alligators come from," Rousser said. "He'll get a chance to be an alligator again."
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