‘Unathletic,’ Arthritic Alligator Back At WI Harley-Davidson Zoo

BONDUEL, WI — An old, unathletic, overweight and arthritic alligator living in, of all places, Wisconsin escaped from his holding pool at a zoo attached to a Harley-Davidson dealership in Bonduel, Wisconsin.

The alligator Rex is among a menagerie of exotic animals living on the property of Doc’s Harley-Davidson in Bonduel, about 30 miles northwest of Green Bay. The place is home to other alligators, a kangaroo, camels, birds, tortoises and more-common farm animals such as horses and pigs.

Steve “Doc” Hopkins did not immediately return Patch’s call for a comment about the alligator’s escape and its return. The website says the animals were surrendered by owners who no longer want them.

The business posted Saturday on Facebook that Rex had disappeared from his enclosure. The alligator is “very old” and “has severe arthritis in his jaws,” making it difficult for him to open his mouth more than an inch, according to the post asking for the public’s help in locating him.

Hopkins said he was heartbroken over Rex’s disappearance. He’s been taking care of the alligator for 35 years. Although Rex is old and generally “docile,” Hopkins said, people who encountered the gator should keep their distance.

“The old gator is very unathletic and quite overweight,” Hopkins told news station WLUK, adding that “if he can open up his jaw an inch and a half, it's a lot. The most he could do is probably slap you with his tail, and that is only if you get close and upset him.”

The four alligators at Doc’s Zoo spend the winter in a heated pond inside. They were moved to their outdoor location just a few days before Rex made his break.

Hopkins told WLUK he doesn’t know how Rex got loose, and that in more than three decades of keeping alligators, he’s never had one that thought it could go on the lam. He discovered Rex was missing Saturday when he went out to feed him.

“There was no sign of the enclosure being breached in any way or the gator digging underneath or anything,” he told WLUK. “It’s just very strange. This has never happened before.”

Plenty of Doc’s Zoo Facebook page followers speculated on what might have happened to Rex, including the ghastly possibility of alligator cannibalism.

“What’s the possibility that the other gators knew this one was old/sick and ate him? Or he passed away and they ate him,” one person wrote on Facebook, posting a link to a 2016 story in Newsweek about an 11-foot-long alligator in a protected area of Florida “chowing down on another (not unsubstantial) gator” and then lumbering away to swallow it.

Apparently, this kind of thing happens fairly often. Researchers in northern Florida found in a 2011 study that between 6 percent and 7 percent of young gators are cannibalized by elder alligators.

But enough about that. Rex didn’t get gobbled up by his own kind. Don’t fret about that.

The alligator was found unharmed in a swampy, wooded area on the zoo complex, the business said Monday on Facebook. How he came to be there is still a mystery, but “what an adventure he must’ve had,” read the post announcing Rex had been found.

Now that Rex is back in the fold, Hopkins feels comfortable having a little sport about the whole thing.

“The only thing I can think is maybe he was pumping iron all during COVID or something and planned his escape,” Hopkins told WLUK. “I don’t know."