SAN ANTONIO - A celebrity reptile wrangler captured a six foot long gator at the Dominion golf course Thursday afternoon. CMT's "Gator 911" star Gary Saurage says Texas Parks and Wildlife called him for help to get rid of the gator. Saurage says he thinks the gator charged a golfer two weeks ago.
"I always tell everyone, 'it takes two pounds to shoot something with a rifle. It takes a real man to catch an alligator underwater!'" Saurage said.
He says he and his crew are the only ones in the state to capture the creatures with their bare hands.
"This was one where I wish my TV crews had been there. It was really good," he said.
It took 40 minutes to capture the grumpy gator because he wasn't so willing to leave his upscale digs.
"The alligator kept playing duck goose with us. He kept going underwater and we had to wait for it. Finally we got a hook on his foot and got him on a line. Damion went underwater and made an unreal catch on him in deep water. It was a really good catch," he explained.
The healthy, six foot long, six year old alligator was most likely living off fish and turtles in the water. Saurage thinks he'd been living there for several years and someone put him in the water.
"I looked at the waterways coming in and there's no waterway right there," he said.
The gator will be living at Saurage's
Gator Rescue, a park for alligators in Beaumont. When reached for comment Thursday afternoon, a manager at the Dominion Country Club said no alligator lived there and said no rescue happened that day.
