When caiman Sammy becomes the "beast of the quarry pond"
Thirty years ago, a little Caiman named Sammy caused quite a stir. Sammy escaped and kept an entire region on edge. The search for the elusive reptile became a media sensation. Sammy was cunning and didn't make things easy for those trying to capture him.
He was one of the most famous stars of the infamous Sommerloch: Caiman Sammy. The search for the escaped Alligator made headlines internationally thirty years ago. Sammy broke free when his owner took him on a swimming excursion to a gravel pit lake near Dormagen on the Lower Rhine. The search for the small Caiman kept police, fire department, and media breathless for days, stirring the whole nation.
After Sammy's escape on July 10, 1994, authorities called for a wildlife hunt. Out of fear of the 80 centimeter long reptile with sharp teeth, the idyllic gravel pit lake remained closed during that hot summer. Talk of a "Beast from the Gravel Pit" and the "Monster of Loch Neuss" filled the air. Photographers and camera crews from all over the world set up camp at the lake's edge. Herpetologists and other "experts" - from the Kenyan Crocodile Hunter to the Seer - offered valuable advice.
Sammy doesn't fall for tricks
However, none of the attempts to capture the Brillenkaiman in the water or on land with nets, ropes, or guns worked at first. Tricks like a crocodile call imitator and a bloody raw meat lure didn't lure Sammy in. Firefighters in inflatable boats came as close as two meters to the escapee, but he simply disappeared again.
The supposedly tame Caiman, who had lived in the apartment of his then 21-year-old owner before, seemed to enjoy the taste of freedom and savored his "swimming vacation" in the lake, which offered numerous hiding places with sandy beaches and dense waterfront vegetation.
In the third night after Sammy's escape, the news broke: The reptile had been shot. "With 99-percent certainty, one of the three shots hit him," the police reported. But they were far off: A few hours later, Sammy was spotted alive.
A diver as a hero
As more and more voices called for mercy for Sammy, a fan club was founded, and animal welfare organizations and scientists from all over Germany demanded his life be spared. Even the North Rhine-Westphalian SPD Interior Minister Herbert Schnoor weighed in and demanded: "Sammy must live!"
Five days later, Sammy's escape took a happy turn: A sports diver discovered the Caiman about one meter under the water surface and caught him with bare hands.
The exhausted Sammy recovered first at the Cologne Zoo and later found exile in the Tierpark Falkenstein in Saxony. Sammy's owner fought various courts for his friend and was allowed to keep him with him temporarily before the man failed definitively before the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court in 1998.
Skippy, Bruno, and Yvonne
The animal caretakers in Saxony considered Sammy, who had been cuddled like a kitten in the bed of his former owner, increasingly dangerous. In 2006, the Tierpark gave the now approximately 1.5-meter long reptile "for safety reasons" to a different home. Sammy lived alone in a cage on an Alligator Farm in Hessen until his death in 2013.
Animal Stars frequently make headlines and stir emotions - sometimes for weeks on end. In 2015, Kangaroo Skippy hopped merrily through Sauerland, Cow Yvonne successfully escaped the butcher in 2011, Swan Petra fell in love with a swan pedal boat on the Aasee in Münster, and Brown Bear Bruno made it into the "New York Times" while strolling through the Bavarian forests in 2006.
Sammy's thrilling escape made headlines not just in Germany but also internationally, attracting interest from animal experts and media outlets around the world, located in places like Kenya. After his rescue, Sammy found a new home in North Rhine-Westphalia, showing that even exotic animals like Caimans can become beloved cultural icons in this region.
