North America's common snapping turtle, from John Edwards Holbrook's book North American Herpetology (1842) (public domain)
It may be the town in
which I was born, but West Bromwich in the West Midlands, England, is more
readily associated with football, courtesy of West Bromwich Albion FC, than cryptozoology
- until the Sandwell Valleygator came on the scene, that is, as now recalled in
this ShukerNature retrospective.
Also nicknamed the
Sandwell Snapper in early media accounts and initially likened to a crocodile, caiman, or alligator, this elusive aquatic cryptid first reared its
snouted head on 30 March 1999. That was when fisherman Mike Sinnatt saw what he
initially thought to be "a marvellously shaped piece of wood",
measuring over 2 ft long, suddenly come alive and attempt to seize an
unsuspecting Canada goose on Swan Pool.
Situated in an RSPB (Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds) reserve within the Sandwell Valley Country
Park - a verdant oasis for nature right in the heart of urbanised West Brom -
Swan Pool measures more than a mile in circumference, and is not only inhabited
by a rich variety of waterbirds but also is popular for angling, yachting, and
wind-surfing.
Or at least it was
until, within a short time of Sinnatt's sighting, a dozen other similar reports
had surfaced, all describing a fairly sizeable four-legged aquatic beast with a
notable snout, long tail, and a penchant for snapping at anything avian or
piscean that came too near. Eyewitnesses included local angler Tony Price and
pool lifeguard Ricky Downes, who spied its two "very chunky" hind
legs and tail.
Was an
alligator lurking in the Sandwell Valley?? (public domain)
Occurring so close to the beginning of April, the Sandwell Valleygator was originally dismissed by sceptics as a hoax,
but this was strenuously denied by Sandwell Council, who were so concerned
about the potential danger posed to the general public by the creature that
they closed the pool to all watersports throughout the Easter Bank Holiday (3-6
April 1999). Needless to say, however, the considerable media publicity
generated not only locally but also nationally and even internationally by Swan
Pool's stealthy snapper resulted in a massive influx of visitors here
(estimated at more than 9,000) during the Bank Holiday, all eagerly scanning
the reed beds and shallows in search of its cryptic alligatorian (or crocodilesque?) interloper.
As I deemed it highly
unlikely that the creature would appear when confronted by such a barrage of
human activity, however, I waited until the holiday period was over before
visiting Swan Pool myself. Walking around this sizeable lake, peering at the
large island present at its centre, at the smaller pools and marshes fringing its
border, and down into its murky depths, it swiftly became evident that an
aquatic creature of the proportions described by the Valleygator's eyewitnesses
could live out a secluded, rarely-spied existence here indefinitely.
I’m
keeping a sharp lookout for the Sandwell Valleygator! (© Dr Karl Shuker)
Yet although neither
the Valleygator itself nor any convincing reports of it surfaced during the
Bank Holiday or my own subsequent visit, official opinion as to its identity
had by now veered away from the scenario of a vicious snap-happy crocodile,
caiman, or suchlike to the rather more placid scenario of a giant salamander.
Specifically, the North American hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis,
which measures up to 30 in long, subsists upon small animal life such as frogs,
fishes, snails, crustaceans, and insect larvae, and is native to the eastern
United States.
Such a beast could
certainly survive, therefore, in the prey-filled, temperate waters of Swan
Pool. However, the fatal flaw in this otherwise promising proposal is that unlike certain crocodilian species the
hellbender is hardly ever maintained in captivity by private individuals,
especially in Britain. So the chance of one having escaped (or been deliberately released) and taken up
residence in Swan Pool is extremely remote.
Head-on
with a hellbender (public domain)
On 7 April, Swan Pool
was formally re-opened, with the Sandwellmander, as it had by now been redubbed
in media accounts, no longer deemed to pose a risk to watersport enthusiasts.
Or, to quote from a local newspaper report the optimistic words of Sandwell's senior countryside ranger Roy
Croucher: "We have decided to re-open the pool on the basis that this
thing is not going to leap out of the water and grab someone around the
throat".
Less than a week
later, however, an unexpected water beast did make an appearance - a North
American common snapping turtle Chelydra serpentina, discovered
sunbathing on a marsh close to Swan Pool. As its name suggests, this
belligerent, sturdy species of freshwater tortoise is famous for snapping
viciously, possesses a prominent snout, a long tail, and can grow up to 2 ft
long (its close relative the alligator snapping turtle Macrochelys temminckii can reach lengths of almost 3
ft). Hence it exhibits the very same features consistently described by
eyewitnesses of the Swan Pool mystery beast. Moreover, in sharp contrast to the
hellbender, the snapping turtle is commonly kept by professional and amateur herpetological enthusiasts alike, so an escapee (or even a deliberately released) specimen of
this species turning up here is by no means implausible.
Handle
with care! A common snapping turtle (public domain)
All of which only
adds, therefore, to the mystery of why, or how, an unnamed Sandwell Council
spokesman could confidently state in subsequent media accounts that this
captured snapping turtle was not the elusive Swan Pool cryptid. How did he, or
anyone else, know? Snapping turtles are readily able to walk on land, so one
could easily have made its way back and forth between Swan Pool and any of the
neighbouring marshes
In late July 2001,
moreover, a notable sequel occurred - the netting in Swan Pool of an 18-in-long
American common snapping turtle, weighing in at a hefty 4 lb. Captured alive
but in a distinctly irate state by teenager Harry Billingham, assisted by his
stepdad Mark, Harry's brother Jack, and friend Dean Cooke, the aggressive
reptile was swiftly brought to the attention of the local RSPCA office by its
astonished captors.
A
snapper rises to the occasion (public domain)
As this species is not
native to Britain or anywhere else in Europe, the Swan Pool specimen must have
been abandoned there by someone, no doubt when it was much smaller - hence quite
some time ago, and possibly far back enough for it to have been responsible for
the 1999 Sandwell Valleygator flap? Perhaps, when some initial media accounts
nicknamed it the Sandwell Snapper, they were closer to the truth than anyone
realised.
Further support
for this identity as a plausible solution to the Valleygator mystery was obtained on 18
July 2003, when a second sizeable adult American common snapping turtle, sporting a
shell diameter of 14 inches and believed to be up to 20 years old, was snared
in another West Midlands pool, this time one just north of Slacky Lane in
Walsall. As for the Valleygator itself, meanwhile, nothing more has been seen or heard of it, so one or both of the above-mentioned snappers captured respectively near to or at Swan Pool may indeed have been responsible for those pre-Easter sightings of it back in spring 1999. Then again...
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