Overview

• Experts verified the authenticity of the video showing an 80–100 cm alligator in a rainwater retention basin.
• Authorities have cordoned off the 2.5 hectare site and deployed drones, thermal imaging cameras and live traps in ongoing search efforts.
• City officials have enlisted a reptile breeder’s advice to improve humane capture methods after initial trap attempts failed.
• Experts characterize the shy juvenile alligator as non-threatening to humans and pets, prompting measures to protect the animal rather than clear the area.
• Draining the retention basin remains a last-resort plan if noninvasive methods do not succeed in securing the escaped reptile.