Aussie Zoo Puts Aggressive Alligator Kanye In The Naughty Corner For A Month

This is the moment Aussie zookeepers remove an alligator called Kanye from the lagoon it shares with 54 others after it grew aggressive during the mating season.Show more

The ‘bad boy’ alligator was captured at its home lagoon in the Australian Reptile Park, which boasts the largest population of American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) in Australia, in the state of New South Wales after it started acting aggressively when the warm weather kicked in and the mating season started.

According to a statement by the reptile park, 20 new alligators were introduced in March this year, however, Kanye has recently started to charge at zookeepers while acting aggressively towards the 54 other alligators in the lagoon during the mating season.

Kanye has been so aggressive that zoo bosses decided to isolate him for a while to let him “cool down”.

Park director Tim Faulkner said: “Ours is normally a very quiet lagoon, with no major altercations taking place. We even saw this earlier this year when we added the additional 20 males to our lagoon.

“However, Kanye has come out of hibernation explosive, therefore, a danger to himself, to the other alligators and staff.

“Kanye has made the other alligators very tense. He’s a young bloke, full of testosterone, and he’s raising havoc right now, so the best thing to do is to send him to the naughty corner for some quiet time out.

“American alligators have one of the strongest jaw pressures of any animal and one bite can be life-threatening, so our amazing team had to take extreme care during the removal.”

The park said that Kanye weighs around 400 kilogrammes and is nearly four metres long.

In a statement, the Australian Reptile Park said: “It took a highly skilled team of over a dozen keepers to locate and catch him from the lagoon. He was then transported to an isolation area, where he’ll spend a month or so calming down.”

The zoo added: “It’s hoped that Kanye will return to the lagoon once the peak breeding season has ceased, and his hormone levels have returned to normal.”

Now the park has reopened following COVID-19 restrictions, bosses are encouraging visitors to view the alligators “being fed in all their prehistoric glory during the spectacular alligator feedings that take place on weekends”.

The American alligator is native to the southeastern USA and is bigger than the only other alligator species, the Chinese alligator.

Australian Reptile Park/NF/Lee Bullen