Tom Kessenich, a herpetologist: one who studies amphibians, was in the dining hall at AACC with a real live American Alligator named Itty Bitty Gator.
Students and faculty were privileged to have been able to hold the 10-year-old alligator in their hands to feel its skin and scales. One anonymously named student who held the alligator said that “it felt like soft rubber.”
Kessenich was not only there to manage the alligator along with other reptiles like snakes, pythons, tegu, and tarantulas, but also to teach the students and faculty more about the creatures.
“In captivity, gators can live up to be 80-years-old” so says the herpetologist.
"They use their tail and mouth like a broom and dustpan [in order to feed themselves]" continues Kessenich with another fact about alligators. It was also mentioned that one of Itty Bitty Gator’s favorite meals is chicken.
Some other facts about the creatures that were there that day are that corn snakes are from the eastern and southern U.S. and they can grow to be 24-72 inches long. Also, the black and white tegu can grow up to 5 feet long.
Kessenich says that he has been working in the field of herpetology “for about a decade” and that Itty Bitty Gator is “10-years-old and still growing”.
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