UNTAMED LOWCOUNTRY
10-foot alligator hanging out in parking lot surprises Lowcountry motel guest
Yesterday
A nearly 10-foot alligator showed up at the Knights Inn Point South motel in Yemassee this week, but it didn’t get a room.
A motel guest discovered the alligator next to his vehicle early Tuesday morning, according to comments and photos posted on Facebook by Jasper County Sheriff’s Office deputy John Mitaly, a K9 handler.
“When your K9 handler skills come in handy and you adopt a new partner. ... Ima need a bigger cage,” Mitaly’s caption reads.
Prakash Patel, the motel’s manager, said his guest was trying to get to his vehicle to go to work when he came back to the front desk. “There’s an alligator near my car!” Patel said the guest told him.
Patel said the animal was just under 10 feet long.
He suspects it came from one of the many ponds where he knows gators live in the area. The motel is located at 420 Campground Road and is a neighbor of the Point South KOA campground.
The men watched the alligator for a while, but it didn’t leave, so they called the Sheriff’s Office, Patel said.
David Lucas, regional public information coordinator for S.C. Department of Natural Resources, confirmed that DNR was contacted by the Sheriff's Office and dispatched Matt McDaniel to deal with the alligator.
Lucas said DNR’s initial report indicated only that the alligator was removed from the scene.
“It doesn’t say it was euthanized, but I would be surprised if it wasn’t,” Lucas said.
In the Lowcountry, roughly 100 alligators are ruled as "nuisance alligators" every year, Lucas previously told The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette. "Of all those calls, only about five alligators are relocated."
When asked via Facebook to talk about the alligator, McDaniel said he could not comment.
During mating season, which alligator experts say was kicked into high gear by the sudden onset of warm weather in late spring, males move around in order to find females.
Lowcountry residents have reported a flood of alligator sightings within the last few weeks.
One of those alligators ended up on the school grounds at May River High School.
Another ended up trapped on the front porchof a family's home in the middle of the night.
In a tragic case, a family's vehicle hit an alligator crossing I-95, and a mother and two children were killed.
A motel guest discovered the alligator next to his vehicle early Tuesday morning, according to comments and photos posted on Facebook by Jasper County Sheriff’s Office deputy John Mitaly, a K9 handler.
'Did that just happen?' Hilton Head man records himself 'rescuing' massive alligator
(Logan Cambron | Ashley Jean Reese)
Prakash Patel, the motel’s manager, said his guest was trying to get to his vehicle to go to work when he came back to the front desk. “There’s an alligator near my car!” Patel said the guest told him.
Patel said the animal was just under 10 feet long.
He suspects it came from one of the many ponds where he knows gators live in the area. The motel is located at 420 Campground Road and is a neighbor of the Point South KOA campground.
Jasper County Sheriff's Office deputy John Mitaly takes a photo with an alligator in the parking lot of the Knights Inn Point South motel in Yemassee on May 15, 2018. (John Mitaly | Submitted)
The men watched the alligator for a while, but it didn’t leave, so they called the Sheriff’s Office, Patel said.
David Lucas, regional public information coordinator for S.C. Department of Natural Resources, confirmed that DNR was contacted by the Sheriff's Office and dispatched Matt McDaniel to deal with the alligator.
Lucas said DNR’s initial report indicated only that the alligator was removed from the scene.
“It doesn’t say it was euthanized, but I would be surprised if it wasn’t,” Lucas said.
In the Lowcountry, roughly 100 alligators are ruled as "nuisance alligators" every year, Lucas previously told The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette. "Of all those calls, only about five alligators are relocated."
When asked via Facebook to talk about the alligator, McDaniel said he could not comment.
During mating season, which alligator experts say was kicked into high gear by the sudden onset of warm weather in late spring, males move around in order to find females.
Lowcountry residents have reported a flood of alligator sightings within the last few weeks.
One of those alligators ended up on the school grounds at May River High School.
Another ended up trapped on the front porchof a family's home in the middle of the night.
In a tragic case, a family's vehicle hit an alligator crossing I-95, and a mother and two children were killed.
Rattlesnake plunges from tree into kayak, then starts attacking the kayaker, SC fire chief says
Yesterday
A South Carolina man thought he was going to enjoy a day outdoors with friends Sunday, but things took a frightening turn.
The man, who was kayaking, was bitten multiple times by a rattlesnake and had to be rushed to an area hospital, according to Colleton County Fire Chief Barry McRoy.
The incident occurred when the 28-year-old Anderson man and friends were kayaking on the Edisto River.
The rattlesnake fell out of a tree and bit the man on his hand, twice, McRoy said.
McRoy said he did not know how long it took the kayakers to reach a boat landing at the intersection of SC-61 and US-15, but he said Colleton County Fire and Rescue received a call about the bite at 5:20, and it took them approximately 12 minutes to pick up the Anderson man.
The man was rushed to Colleton Medical Center, which had anti-venom waiting in the emergency room, according to McRoy.
During the ambulance ride, the man "was in bad shape, and greatly deteriorated," McCroy said, adding that the man's ailments included lots of swelling and airway problems.
The man was listed in critical condition, abcnews4.com reported.
While McRoy praised the work done in the ER, he said the man was flown by helicopter to MUSC Monday morning, saying typically that is not a good sign.
The rattlesnake was captured by friends of the man on the kayaking trip, live5news.comreported.
McRoy said the rattlesnake wasn't very big, estimating it was between 18 inches and 2-feet long.
This was the first reported rattlesnake bite in the county this year, McRoy said. He said there have been a number of copperhead snake bites reported, but typically in those cases the patients have been treated and released from hospitals.
In 2016, Wayne Grooms, a West Columbia naturalist, died after a snake bit him at Santee National Wildlife Refuge. Grooms’ death stunned many people in South Carolina because fatal snakebites are so rare. No more than a half dozen people die nationally each year from snakebites.
The man, who was kayaking, was bitten multiple times by a rattlesnake and had to be rushed to an area hospital, according to Colleton County Fire Chief Barry McRoy.
The incident occurred when the 28-year-old Anderson man and friends were kayaking on the Edisto River.
The rattlesnake fell out of a tree and bit the man on his hand, twice, McRoy said.
McRoy said he did not know how long it took the kayakers to reach a boat landing at the intersection of SC-61 and US-15, but he said Colleton County Fire and Rescue received a call about the bite at 5:20, and it took them approximately 12 minutes to pick up the Anderson man.
The man was rushed to Colleton Medical Center, which had anti-venom waiting in the emergency room, according to McRoy.
During the ambulance ride, the man "was in bad shape, and greatly deteriorated," McCroy said, adding that the man's ailments included lots of swelling and airway problems.
The man was listed in critical condition, abcnews4.com reported.
While McRoy praised the work done in the ER, he said the man was flown by helicopter to MUSC Monday morning, saying typically that is not a good sign.
The rattlesnake was captured by friends of the man on the kayaking trip, live5news.comreported.
McRoy said the rattlesnake wasn't very big, estimating it was between 18 inches and 2-feet long.
This was the first reported rattlesnake bite in the county this year, McRoy said. He said there have been a number of copperhead snake bites reported, but typically in those cases the patients have been treated and released from hospitals.
In 2016, Wayne Grooms, a West Columbia naturalist, died after a snake bit him at Santee National Wildlife Refuge. Grooms’ death stunned many people in South Carolina because fatal snakebites are so rare. No more than a half dozen people die nationally each year from snakebites.
6 comments:
Aligaters???
What? No Krockadials?
I dont think it fell from a tree. I think he saw it on the bank and started messing with it and it bit him. Rattlers dont climb or swim much. But at least he’s OK.
I suspect that when Interstate 95 was being built through coastal Georgia and South Carolina in the 1960s and 1970s, there were always some workers ready with shotguns for the inevitable encounters between workers and dangerous critters when grading, paving, and building bridges....Today, when Yankees move south, they are shocked to see such critters in their backyard (I don' think gators could survive a New England or upstate New York winter!). In the Atlanta area, because of development, you don't hear much about rattlesnakes around here, though copperheads are another matter (the poisonous snake most common in our area). And when you do hear of gators, it usually involves some fool who releases one "into the wild" when it gets too big---alligators are not native to the Georgia Piedmont, and they are not keen on the Chattahoochee River up here because the water is cold year-round (released from the bottom of very deep Lake Lanier)....I suppose if one insists on immersion (for baptism) in the coastal areas, he or she had better have lots of faith!!!!
The snake was probably on a low limb near the bank and fell. Rattlesnakes are not climbers, but will crawl out on low limbs very near the ground at times to sun or stalk prey.
Or what Gene said.
I wonder how an alligator would get onto and interstate? Usually the right of way is fenced in on both sides. unlike secondary roads. All the more reason I am glad to live in 30327 where Copperheads and occasional flooding of Peachtree Creek are the worst natural things to deal with (though we are not far from high-crime areas either)
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