Beloved South Carolina Golf Resort Alligator Freed from Cage

A South Carolina golf resort is thanking wildlife workers for rescuing its beloved alligator friend, “King Arthur,” after a piece of debris was stuck over his head for several days.

King Arthur is known by the staff and guests at Fripp Island Golf & Beach Resort, so much so that he has been given a regal name. Unfortunately, the 11-foot-two-inch reptile caused worry when his fans noticed that he had some kind of metal cage stuck around his head and neck.

Resort staff members took pictures and reported the findings to the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Coastal Ecology Lab, which told them to sit tight and see if the gator would get free on his own. 

“After talking with them and looking at the pictures they sent, it appeared that this alligator had somehow gotten a tomato cage stuck over his head!” the lab announced in a Monday Facebook post. “In situations like this, it is very tempting to want to jump in and immediately help by removing whatever is stuck on the animal. That is not always the best thing to do, as oftentimes the animal can get free.”

However, King Arthur still was not free after multiple days of waiting, and “other things were starting to get caught in the cage.”

Realizing the urgency of the situation, the UGA lab sent a team that joined the resort’s head naturalist, Colleen Goff, in a daring quest to capture the male reptile and remove the cage.

After several attempts, the crew caught the large reptile and removed the cage.

“We were worried that he would get stuck on something underwater and drown if he could not get free. For those reasons, we decided human intervention was necessary,” lab officials said.

“While we do not know how he got his head stuck in a tomato cage, our best guess is that the cage ended up in the water, washed into a pipe, and that when the alligator swam through the pipe he also swam into the tomato cage,” the researchers explained. “This is an excellent example of why it is so important to properly dispose of your trash. This is just one of many examples where an animal has had complications because of trash that was improperly disposed of.”

After King Arthur was set free, officials at Fripp Island Golf & Beach Resort voiced their relief.

“WOW! We are so thankful to our Head Naturalist, Colleen Goff, and the UGA Coastal Ecology Lab for helping our beloved King Arthur,” resort staff wrote on Facebook.

The gator in question has been seen at the golf resort since 2018, WFTV9 reports.

The outlet cited officials who believe King Arthur is at least 40 years old and has “likely lived on Fripp his whole life.”