Strange orange alligator turns heads in South Carolina
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}File photo: An alligator floats in a pond under rainy skies on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, August 8, 2012. (REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger)
An alligator in a small South Carolina town is grabbing attention because of one weird quality: it’s orange.
To be more accurate, it’s a rusty, clay, sweet-potato color, and no one is sure why. But one thing is for certain— it doesn’t have an alligator’s typical color.
The little gator, reportedly about 4.5 feet long, lives in a pond in Hanahan, South Carolina.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Orange "Trumpagator" spotted in #Hanahan has residents scratching their heads. Is it albino? Clemson fan? https://t.co/XBxFHlwzmg #chsnews pic.twitter.com/7PJr9oMahK
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) February 9, 2017
The Post and Courier reported that a post on Facebook about the strangely-colored animal has gotten plenty of attention, with one person commenting that the orange-ish animal was a “Trumpagator.”
And a local resident told the paper, after photographing the reptile: “"I just thought, what the hell is that?"
It's unclear why the gator has the strange, Doritos-like color, although one expert speculated its non-natural color could be due to an “environmental factor,” like a pollutant or algae.