Central Park Caiman in Bag; Won’t Become One
A day after a television crew captured a Central Park caiman on videotape, a Florida wildlife worker with a flashlight and a canoe captured it in the flesh--barehanded.
Mike Bailey, 23, an alligator expert from the Seminole reservation near Hollywood, Fla., grabbed the 2-foot caiman, a member of the crocodile family, late Thursday.
Bailey and an assistant found the reptile in the reeds of a lake, then Bailey plunged in and grabbed the reptile without a struggle.
Officials believe the reptile was a pet that was released after it got too big. “He will be given a good home,” Bailey said. “He will not be turned into a purse.”
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