Crocodile in the channel
The metropolitan myth of the crocodile in the sewer or sewer igator is a widespread story that crocodiles or alligators are believed to live in sewers after allegedly escaping from zoos or being kept as pets and then being flushed down the toilet by their owners. The augmented shape is the myth of the white alligators, an albino population of alligators in New York's sewers. This myth is particularly widespread in the USA , but also in Europe. White alligator also serves as a marker for modern myths.
Origin of the Myth
The myth of the crocodile in the Canal probably originated in the United States in the 1930s. Back then, an eight-foot-long alligator had been pulled out of a gully .
criticism
Even if there have been a few cases of reptiles in the canal, experts believe the stories are only legends. The channel is not a suitable habitat for reptiles, as reptiles
- Need sunlight to warm up and recharge,
- Avoid cold and cold water (even if it is warmer in the sewer system than outdoors, the temperatures are comparatively low) and
- Are predators and not scavengers. Apart from rats, there is little prey in the sewers.
In addition, the wastewater is heavily polluted and contains not only faeces but also other (poisonous) substances that would not be beneficial to the health of the animal in the long term.
Known cases
Crocodiles are seldom discovered in a channel, and then mostly only young animals. It is believed by many that local residents who own these animals flush young crocodiles down the toilet. Unlike mammals, reptiles rarely drown. Most of the cases have occurred in the United States with Mississippi alligators , but at least one crocodile of unknown origin has also been discovered in the Paris sewers, caught under the Quai de la Mégisserie and currently living in the Aquarium du Golfe du Morbihan in Vannes , Brittany .
A turtle was discovered in Sydney in November 2000 . It could have been a turtle that disappeared in Sydney's Australian Reptile Park in 1979 .
In 2012, a 1.70 m long crocodile was caught in Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip , which escaped from a zoo two years earlier and has since survived in sewage pools and sewers.
In addition, there have been reports of crocodiles that have been sighted in other waters and that seem to confirm the stories of crocodiles in the sewer system - the best-known example in Germany is the caiman Sammy , who escaped its owner in 1994 and spent several days in one Quarry pond was searched.
Artistic processing
The legend appears several times in artistic and pop cultural works:
- In Thomas Pynchon's novel V (1963), the protagonist works as a crocodile hunter in New York.
- In 1980 a film was made ( The Horror Alligator , Director: Lewis Teague), the plot of which is based on the myth.
- In 1981 Franz Winzentsen made an animation film about a channel ligator .
- In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, the title characters and co-protagonist Leatherhead, a mutated alligator, live in places in the sewers of New York City.
- In Neil Gaiman's 1996 novel Neverwhere, two chapters (8 and 11) contain references to alligators in the New York Canal system.
- In 1998 an album by Gerhard Schöne was released with the title Alligators in the Sewers .
- The lyrics of the song Fog by Radiohead , released in 2001 on the Knives Out single, contains a nod to the myth.
- A sewer igator appears in the feature film The Story of Monty Spinnerratz from the Augsburger Puppenkiste .
- In the TV series Super Mario Brothers Supershow , a crocodile repeatedly appears in the sewer entrance.
- In a commercial canal in the old town of Freiburg im Breisgau (so-called Gerberau ) there is a granite crocodile by the Berlin stone sculptor Ole Meinecke, donated by an adjacent commercial enterprise.
- In the online computer game World of Warcraft, there is a crocodile-like canal beast in the canals of the city of Stormwind .
- In the computer game Last Ninja II the third level takes place in the sewers of New York City ; a crocodile is the final boss of this level.
- In Matt Ruff's novel GAS The Trilogy of Public Utilities , a separate authority is necessary to keep the dangerous fauna in Manhattan's sewers in check, which includes crocodiles and the mutated great white shark Meisterbrau .
- In the series Futurama by Matt Groening , the myth is taken up in the first episode of the second season, as Bender Nibbler washed down the toilet.
- In the series The Penguins from Madagascar , the myth is shown in the episode Ghosts in the Enclosure , but the alligator is shown here - child-friendly - as nice and shy.
- In the series Alarm für Cobra 11 (episode: Race against time ) there is a crocodile in the sewer.
- In the music-theatrical composition Leyendas urbanas (Big City Myths ) by Juan María Solare : the third of five pieces is Canal igator .
- In the children's book Bunny in the Pit by Isabel Kreitz, a bunny who fell through an open manhole cover into the sewer system encounters a crocodile there.
- In the Disney mobile app Where's My Water , the main characters are crocodiles who live in sewers and need water to bathe. The aim of the game is to give the animals this water and collect bath ducks in the process.
- In the computer game Resident Evil 2 (1998) and in the remake (2019) you fight an oversized crocodile in the sewer system of Raccoon City.
Web links
- Reptiles in the Underground by Christoph Drösser , Column Right? in Die Zeit , No. 44, October 23, 2003
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/alligators/a/sewer_gators.htm
- ↑ ALLIGATOR FOUND IN UPTOWN SEWER, New York Times, February 10, 1935
- ↑ The date is given in various sources as 1983, 1984 and September 26, 1985.
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/nov/29/patrickbarkham
- ↑ http://forum.kingsnake.com/asia/messages/922.html
- ↑ Gaza Strip: Police catch sewer crocodile. In: Spiegel Online . November 6, 2012, accessed June 10, 2018 .
- ↑ https://www.tagesspiegel.de/gesellschaft/panorama/20-jahre-sammy-die-mutter-aller-krokodilmeldung-im-sommerloch/10182952.html
- ^ Neverwhere. Retrieved June 10, 2018 .
- ↑ Photos on Flickr
- ↑ Where is my water? 2. In: Disney Games DE. Retrieved October 5, 2016 .