Kayaker Passes Alligator 4 Feet Long on Lake Michigan

WAUKEGAN, Ill. – The authorities do not know who threw a four-foot-long reptile into Lake Michigan, but now they know what type it is. Having first thought that the animal seen Monday swimming near Waukegan, Illinois, by a surprised kayaker was a caiman, officials now say that it's actually an alligator .

Anyway, he has no interest in navigating the shores of suburban Chicago and Waukegan spokesman David Motley said on Tuesday that animal control officers were trying to determine who had abandoned the creature, who was found mouth closed by elastics.

Motley said officials thought the animal was a caiman for much of Monday's day, but Rob Carmichael, curator of the Wildlife Discovery Center, located near Lake Forest, later told him that 39, it was an alligator.

"I did not think it was true," said fisherman David Castaneda at CBS Chicago. "I thought it was a fake, like maybe a toy."

The caimans and alligators are alike, but the muzzle of an alligator is more rounded and only his upper teeth are visible when his mouth is closed, while the upper and lower teeth of a caiman are visible, a said Andrew Biddle, head of reptiles at Wild Florida Airboats. & Gator Park in Kenansville, Florida.

Carmichael said that an alligator would be more capable than a cayman to handle the cold waters of Lake Michigan and that the one rescued on Monday could have been swimming for weeks. He said that he could have done it with his mouth shut because the alligators can stay for months without food.

Carmichael said that although the saved gator is weak, she has a very good chance of surviving if she manages to survive in the next few days.

This is not the first time anyone drops a wild animal on or in Lake Michigan, said Motley, referring to an incident that occurred in 2012, during which someone abandoned a python more than 14 feet by the lake.