Perhaps because alligators seem natural in New York (who hasn't wondered if there was an alligator in the sewer beneth their feet), Ming the Tiger, the illegal Harlem resident, got all the media attention, whereas Al the Alligator got very little love. The Times ponders this issue as well as what has happened with Al since being kicked out of the squat. James Doherty, the general curator of the Bronx Zoo, says that the alligator might not have been unhappy with apartment life, and Bill Holmstrom, the zoo's reptiles manager, thinks, "I don't think he would climb up and look out the window. I don't think he would stare out a window like a cat might do, but you never know." Now in Ohio (56 miles from Ming), Al has been renamed Lucky and likes to give humans the eyeball from under the heatlamp. Awesome.
The City's child welfare officials are looking to see if Antoine Yates' makeshift zoo was also a home for foster children and Yates was evicted from his apartment. The Daily News reports that Ming attacked and killed another tiger cub Yates had.
