A 6-foot man and a 6-foot gator in a 36-inch pipe...

      Not a good combination!
      This is the last of my alligator tales, recounted by Norm Shea, Director of Lakes Management in South Carolina. Norm was regaling a lunch-time group of us at the IECA conference (see a previous post) with some wonderful stories about his firm's work on storm drain inspection and maintenance. He has a team of divers who go through storm drain systems, noting where maintenance is needed to keep them functioning well for the protection of the community. 
      One of his divers prefers to do this survey work backwards, moving feet-first through the pipes. One day he was about 100 feet from the end of a 450-foot long pipe when his foot touched a stick, which he kicked out of the way. He had to kick it again to clear the obstruction, which then moved up the pipe, moved along under his belly and started to surface in front of him. In one terrifying moment he realized it was an alligator! With extraordinary presence of mind, he clamped its jaws with one hand (they can close their jaws with tremendous power, but can't open them with force) and tied its mouth shut.
      Somehow he wrangled the beast backwards out of the pipe, where he and the rest of the team trussed it up in state-approved fashion to transport it to another water body - apparently quite normal practice! Alligators are not warm-blooded, and rely on external sources of heat to stay warm. As Norm said, 'Without minimizing the frightening nature of this encounter, the animal was very cold and when released, was moving in such slow-motion that it took over five minutes to move just a few yards into a place of shelter.'
      The females bury their eggs to help them hatch, but the babies dig their way to the surface. So when they are ready to hatch, they start making a peeping noise. When the mother hears this, she crawls to the next, opens it up, helps any stragglers to break out of their shell, and carries them down to the water in her mouth.
      With the help of a homeowner near one of these hatcheries, Norm filmed a hatching process - you can see this and other wonderful gator footage at http://www.kiawah-owners.org/Lakes-AlligatorVideos.htm. Find out more about Norm's work on his website www.kica.us.