SUGAR LAND, Texas — Neighbors in Sugar Land said their boats have been under attack recently -- by aggressive alligators.
They said two boats in the last two weeks have been bit by alligators.
Now, trappers are trying to catch the reptiles before anyone gets hurt. There are signs nearby that read alligator trapping is in progress.
Nobody knows for certain why it’s happening but the neighbors said it’s frightening.
“I’ve been rowing over 20 years in this body of water and we’ve never had an alligator attack,” president of the Greater Houston Rowing Club Dee Connors said.
She said the problem started about two weeks again when a man in his 80s was rowing early in the morning.
“One day he hit the alligator with his oar,” she said. “On the second day, the alligator chomped the end of his boat and his boat started sinking, but he made it to shore. He had to walk his boat about a mile, but nobody was hurt.”
In a picture taken after the attack, you can clearly see the teeth marks in the jagged hole of the man’s boat.
Last week, it happened again.
“Another one of the rowers was just rowing out behind me and another one of the alligators chomped the end of his boat, he didn’t get it as hard as the first one so he was able to row it to shore,” Connors said.
Nobody’s sure what might be making the alligators act this way. Some said vegetation along the banks of Oyster Creek has been cleared, possibly exposing their nests.
Connors said First Colony’s Home Owners Association has enlisted the help of the game warden and trappers to hunt down the aggressive animal.
They caught one so far, but rowers fear it may not have been the only one.
“They got one of the gators but the second bite happened after that one was picked up,” Connors said. “So it’s the wrong one or there’s another aggressive gator.”