The residents of Charleston, South Carolina have been thoroughly perplexed, and a little frightened, after a bright orange alligator surfaced in a pond near Hanahan.
According to the Miami Herald, the 4 to 5-foot-long reptile has been spotted on several different occasions on the banks of a retention pond at the Tanner plantation neighborhood.
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The gator was particularly noticeable in the water and on the banks of the river because of its curious rusty, clay color.
Photos of the gator surfaced online, and social media users immediately began to provide commentary on the peculiar gator.
Because of its unique hue, the gator was dubbed by some jokesters as the “Trumpagator.”
Another wrote: “I guess he used too much self tanner?!?!”
Many hypothesized as to the causation behind the eye-popping coloration of the alligator at this point, and a specialist has now finally weighed in to provide a plausible theory. Kent A. Vilet, an alligator biologist from the University of Florida, has explained that the animal’s hue definitely is not the result of some genetic abnormality, according to Post and Courier.
“I have no doubt that animal is stained somehow,” Vliet said. “He’s the color of rust.”
He continued by saying that leucistic or albino alligators are completely white, and don’t have the orange tint like the one seen in South Carolina. The most likely conclusion based on the photos and videos of the Cheetos-colored gator is that it obtained its non-natural color due to an “environmental factor” such as a certain type of algae or pollutant.
Vilet explained that the gator’s skin color will likely return to normal in the event that the reptile doesn’t return to the affected area.
“It’ll either wash off or leach off in the water,” he said.
Check out the video of the bright orange alligator above.
How would you react if you saw this bright orange alligator coming out of the water?
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[H/T Miami Herald, Post and Courier]
