Anyone who lives with a cat knows that sooner or later the house cat will return from his outdoor adventures proudly carrying something: from mice to lizards, there are so many preys that become their hunting trophies. But Burnt Toast, an adorable black cat who lives in Wisconsin, quite surprised his owner – and the neighbors – by coming home with the head of an alligator between his teeth.
“He was very proud of himself,” owner Wendy Wiesehuegel told Fox News, explaining that the cat had been seen by a neighbor dragging the object across the lawn and at first thought it was a fish. “I leaned over and said, ‘That’s not a northern pike or a fish. That’s an alligator,'” the woman said.
Baffled by the scaly surprise, the owner called the Department of Natural Resources and expert Tim Aspenson believes that head came from a real alligator, probably about three feet long, that had been a pet that either escaped or was released in nature.
Images of the alligator’s head released by Fox 6 Milwaukee show the top of the skull intact with scales and teeth, but when flipped over, the lower jaw is detached and the inside of the skull appears to be missing.
It’s not clear how long this creature has been dead, but Aspenson said it was indeed a “very rare” find and somewhat worrying given that the nearby lake is not normally frequented by these animals.
DNR amphibian/reptile biologist Rori Paloski typically receives only one report a year of an alligator in Wisconsin: “They’re definitely not naturally occurring, they’re not native to Wisconsin,” he explains. their captive condition or captive pets entering lakes”.
To this we must add that, according to experts, the chances of an alligator surviving a Wisconsin winter are very unlikely: “It is not a species native to Wisconsin – explains the biologist -. They shouldn’t be here, they are not part of our landscape natural”.
