14 • June 17-18, 2020 CURIOUSITIES Officials seek to nab alligator spotted in Kansas creek MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Authorities in Kansas have closed a trail around a creek as they try to catch an alligator spotted there. The 5-foot alligator is believed to be one of two stolen from a pet store in the northeastern Kansas city of Manhattan last weekend, the Mercury reported. A man called 911 to report seeing an alligator while he was walking along Linear Park Trail on Wednesday. Animal control officers who responded saw the animal lounging on a log in Wildcat Creek.The trail was closed, and officials set traps overnight in hopes of catching the reptile. Authorities said they don’t know how the alligator made it into the creek or whether the other alligator stolen on June 5 from Manhattan Reptile World is also on the loose. Officials have asked anyone who spots either alligator to call police. Oh snap! Police capture 65-pound turtle from Virginia suburb ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A 65-pound alligator snapping turtle with a face only its mother could love has found a new home at a Virginia zoo after freaking out residents in a northern Virginia suburb. The turtle, dubbed Lord Fairfax, was repeatedly crossing a residential road in the Alexandria area, acbransonglobe.com cording to Fairfax County Police. Not native to the area, the alligator snapping turtle is generally found in the wild farther south. Animal control officers initially took Lord Fairfax to the county animal shelter, and then to the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The fisheries folks say the turtle is just a juvenile and could eventually grow as big as 200 pounds. They say the northern Virginia climate would have been too cold for him to live in the wild. He will live instead at The Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. ‘Lord Fairfax’ will relocate to The Virginia Zoo at Norfolk. (AP photo) EXP 6/30/20
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