Rasa Love was up late catching up with a houseguest who had just arrived from out of town when a loud thump hit her front door around 1 a.m. last Friday. She opened it thinking the noise might have been her cat. Instead, she found herself staring down the head of an 8-foot alligator parked right at the threshold of her home on the 1100 block of Spring Glen Court in Leland.
Love first slammed the door. Her houseguest, who did not believe her, reopened it, said “oh my,” and slammed it shut again, according to a report from the Charlotte Observer. Love called 911, and Leland police arrived to find the 8-foot alligator still sitting on her porch, police said. Officers contacted state wildlife officials, who helped remove the animal and relocate it to a nearby open waterway. Love reported that the gator moved around her yard for a while afterward before she finally went to bed around 2 a.m., stunned by how close the encounter had come to her front door. “We surprised each other,” she said, adding that she felt lucky to have seen the animal even as she was shocked to find it practically on her doorstep.
Why Alligators End Up on North Carolina Porches
Southeastern North Carolina sits at the northernmost edge of the American alligator’s range, and the federally protected species is a familiar, if unpredictable, presence around Leland. Alicia D. Wassmer, an alligator biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, said animals can be drawn toward homes by scents from pets, pet food, or the wild animals that pet food attracts. She also said an alligator may simply take a wrong path around a house, since human structures are difficult for the animals to navigate from ground level — consistent with state guidance advising coastal property owners to remove pet food and other outdoor attractants, according to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.
Brunswick County, where Leland sits, is home to the state’s highest concentration of American alligators, anchored by the nearby Orton Pond, a roughly 500-to-688-acre waterway near the Cape Fear River that serves as the species’ primary stronghold in North Carolina, according to WNCN. Wassmer has said that alligator movement and neighborhood encounters typically peak during the spring mating season in May and June, though warm coastal weather keeps the animals active into early autumn, as reported by Coastal Review.
A Growing Pattern Across Brunswick County
Love’s late-night visitor is far from an isolated case in the area. In nearby Southport, Hoodline previously reported on a 12-foot gator that parked itself on a homeowner’s front porch, requiring removal by local police and state wildlife officers. Southport’s municipal Animal Protective Services unit has captured and relocated roughly 20 alligators in a single season. County sheriff’s deputies also had to remove an alligator twice in one night from Highway 17S near the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge this past May, according to a report cited by Cardinal & Pine…