Find out where gators and other critters really are living in the sewers

Turns out there really are alligators in the sewers — just not in the Big Apple.

A recent study by researchers at the University of Florida found that nearly three dozen species of wildlife are thriving in the pipes beneath Gainesville — including frogs, armadillos, a dozen types of birds and, of course, the legendary sewer gator.

The findings, published in the most recent edition of Urban Naturalist, included 50 alligator sightings over four months of research using underground cameras.

“It’s like something out of ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,’” lead researcher Alan Ivory, a PhD student at the school, told NDTV World. “The abundance of animals down there was surprising.

“We would have raccoons steal cameras every now and then,” Ivory said. “They would climb up the ladders and tear them off the manholes.”

Ivory and fellow researchers Matthew Hallett, Brett Scheffers and Steve Johnson planted 39 motion-activated cameras in the storm drains beneath and around the university campus between February and May in 2023 and waited for the results.

While raccoons, rats and opossums were expected visitors to the sewers others were a surprise — with a total of 35 different species identified in the pipes, according to the study.

That included 12 species of birds, including owls, swarms of bats and seven reptile species.

The observations determined that bats largely used the stormwater sewer system to capture insects near manhole covers, and may only use the system as “winter roosts,” the 20-page study said.

Many of the critters, including the alligators, may use the sewers as a sort of underground highway to get from one place to another — although at least one was spotted looking for food at a dead end.

“The use of an underground corridor system has the potential to increase survivorship, dispersal and population viability of urban wildlife,” the study said.

Larger creatures like deer and bobcats were spotted near the entrance to sewers and stormdrains but did not venture inside — nor were foxes snapped on any of the cameras, the researchers said.

So, the findings prove that the urban legend about gators living in the sewers has some legs, even if not in New York City, where Alligator in the Sewer Day is still celebrated every year on Feb. 9.