Are there really alligators in the Columbia Canal? Oh yes. Here’s what to know about them

Oh yes, it’s true. Alligators are coming back to the Columbia Canal.

So far, park rangers think there are two alligators living and luxuriating in the canal that runs along the east side of the confluence of the Saluda and Broad rivers.

One of the alligators has been seen sunbathing on a sandbar near the pedestrian bridge at the south end of the canal park.

But you’d be forgiven for thinking the canal’s gators were an urban legend.

At one point gators lived happy and predatorily successful lives hunting fish, snakes, birds and anything else that scurried across their paths at the canal, said assistant Columbia Park Superintendent Karen Swank Kustafik.

But then the gators left and didn’t come back for several years, she said.

Park rangers first noticed alligators in the canal in 2007. The reptiles became local celebrities, showing up for photo-ops on warm spring and summer days.

That’s when the city put up the “Alligators may live here” signs reminding residents to “be gator safe” by not feeding or approaching the animals.

At one point park rangers counted four alligators living and hunting in the canal.

“But then they fished it out and seemed to move to the river,” Swank Kustafik said.

Around 2013, during a high water period, rangers noticed the alligators had mostly gone. And the 2015 flood “was a double whammy” and so the gators mostly stayed away, she said.

But it seems the gators are coming back, and now they’re saying hello.

Earlier this month, a father and son shared their footage of one of the alligators with WIS. And The State’s own Sarah Ellis Owen also recently saw a gator sunning itself at the canal.

A search on social media shows residents and visitors have been encountering canal gators since at least 2022.

But residents who do see a gator shouldn’t worry.

“It’s a really good reason to keep your small dogs on a leash,” Swank Kustafik said, but the alligators aren’t a danger to the environment or to the people at the riverfront park — as long as people keep their distance and don’t feed the alligators.

“I think you should feel lucky if you get to see one,” she said.

This story was originally published April 3, 2024 at 9:03 AM.

Morgan Hughes

The State

(803) 771-8330

Morgan Hughes covers Columbia news for The State. She previously reported on health, education and local governments in Wyoming. She has won awards in Wyoming and Wisconsin for feature writing and investigative journalism. Her work has also been recognized by the South Carolina Press Association.