YouTube / TomoNews US
A 5-foot-long alligator in South Carolina has been nicknamed ‘Trump-a-gator’ by the locals after its skin turned completely orange. This peculiar reptile calls Tanner Plantation in Hanahan, South Carolina home, a place where this gator‘s stuck out like a sore thumb.
Since turning orange this alligator has found worldwide fame, with everyone trying to get a glimpse of the orange ‘Trump-a-gator‘. Images of this orange gator have been hitting social media faster than I can keep up with, and the Associated Press has released video footage of this strange orange alligator swimming:
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
Local biologists can’t say for certain why the gator is orange but they suspect it has something to do with a rusty steel culvert pipe nearby. They also believe that this orange alligator in S.C. will return to its natural green color when it sheds its skin soon.
I’m going to be honest with you bros, I had no idea that alligators shed their skin/scales. I was born and raised in Southwest Florida. True story: I grew up on a golf course named ‘Gator Creek’, and I once found a juvenile alligator in the bathroom of my high school. I was in the Boy Scouts and spent an unreasonable amount of time camping in Florida’s State Parks near alligators. And until today I never knew that alligators shed their skin. I did some Googling on this, and it appears as if alligators shed their scutes (scales) just like every other reptile, but it’s not at all the same process as snakes shedding their skin. The alligators’ scutes, or scales, will fall off and shed one at a time instead of a full-body shedding like we see in snakes….So, now you know.