Thousands of water snakes have been abandoned in a Harbor City lake, evading wildlife biologists and adding to an ecological mess, it was reported today.
Machado Lake, once famously home to a discarded alligator named Reggie, has become the dumping ground for an estimated 3,000 or so water snakes, once
sold as $10 pets but now banned in California.
The Daily Breeze reports that all types of foreign animals have been dumped at the lake and surrounding Harbor Regional Park, an oasis of green that sits hard between an oil refinery and impoverished neighborhoods in Wilmington.
The water snakes, which can grow up to four feet long, are not poisonous. But they can bite, and are getting fat on carp and other tasty fare in the murky lake.
Snapping turtles, red-eared sliders, koi and possibly a monstrous python live at the park and lake, said Robert Reed, an environmental scientist quoted by the newspaper. The snake, 15 feet long, has been reported to live there, but officials have not seen it.
Rumors of a 12-foot alligator in Machado Lake were also unconfirmed for months, until newspaper photographers snapped shots of Reggie. He was grappled into submission and now resides at the Los Angeles Zoo.
Next year, Machado Lake will be dredged and cleansed as part of a $117 million flood control project that will also improve the Wilmington Drain, which links the lake to San Pedro Bay.