Toothy Reptile Watch

On Day Six, they couldn't agree whether it's a caiman or an alligator. Nor could the barefoot gator wranglers from Colorado trap the tortilla-gobbling, raw chicken-eschewing monster in a big net. The whole episode is starting to remind people of Bubbles, the pregnant hippo that wandered out of Orange County's Lion Country Safari in 1978 and became a media obsession. After nineteen days in a nearby pond, she was brought down with a tranquilizer dart—and drowned. Meanwhile, a caiman (or gator) was nabbed Tuesday in front of a home in Lawrence, Kansas. And the LAT has fired up a blog-like Reporter's Notebook from the scene in Harbor City.