Gator with a taste for cats

The suspect.

This alligator is an accused cat killer, and it doesn't want you to find the evidence.

About two months ago the alligator, which is close to 5 feet long, moved into the small pond that is kept filled at Texas Parks & Wildlife Department's State Park Region 4 headquarters.

It is unusual for an alligator to move into such a small pond, but not unusual to see stray cats or dogs on the property, said Kelly the warden.

Recently a dead cat was spotted in the pond. There is speculation that the gator killed the cat and has stashed the decaying cat body underwater near the walkway for later meals. The cat was too big for the alligator to eat whole so it is munching on bits of the cat as the carcass deteriorates.

I want to believe it.

During a wetlands plants class, about 20 of us were standing on the walkway when the alligator surfaced under a couple of duck decoys to hiss at us.

When I went out after class to check on the alligator, I couldn't see it. But while I was chatting with a couple of wardens and another classmate, the gator crossed the pond to return to the same spot.

It lifted its head and gave a hiss.

I think that's gator talk for: "Get away from my dead cat." Or, maybe: "I would like to bite off your fingers and hide them down here with my dead cat." -- Lana b.

That's close enough.

Wetlands Plant Identification class instructor Andy points out some live specimens in a pond inhabited by a couple of duck decoys and a very live alligator.