Did you see the alligator in the Kalamazoo River?

Growing up, The Princess and the Frog was my favorite Disney movie. Not only for the Black representation of little princesses but also because the movie had amazing characters.

One character I loved was Louis, the trumpet-playing alligator with his eyes set on becoming a "human" jazz musician.

However, I never thought I would see an alligator in real life. This may be changing today after this news in Kalamazoo.

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If you wanted to take your family to the nature center in Kalamazoo, you might want to hold off on that plan.

A nature center has temporarily closed after there were two back-to-back sightings of an alligator in the Kalamazoo River.

It was announced through a Facebook post by Albion College that the Whitehouse Nature Center would be closing.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the Whitehouse Nature Center will be closed Sunday, July 10, 2022. Today, there were two independent sightings of what is thought to be a four- to five-foot alligator at around the same time in the same vicinity earlier today in the Kalamazoo River where it runs through the Nature Center. The College is in communication with local and state experts and is working toward a resolution as quickly as possible."

The college is also informing all citizens to stay away from the nature center and keep an eye out for anything around or near bodies of water.

Underneath that same announcement post, an update was given that the Department of UnNatural Resources (DUNR)

"was notified immediately. DUNR from time to time gets reports such as these involving gators, sharkers, saucers and Bigfoot. Sometimes the reports are substantiated with evidence and other times they go unproven. Part of the things that the DUNR does is to investigate reports of unnatural things or things that aren't commonly found in the state of Michigan. After a more than casual glance about the Kalamazoo River from the Hannah Street Bridge, they witnessed no evidence of any such creature."

So the question still stands: Is there an alligator running around Kalamazoo?