Other Animal (But Non-Buggy) Crackers

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Sewergators

Debunked: There are alligators inhabiting the sewers of New York City.

Alligators in the sewers is a classic UL, probably originating with a real event from the 1930s (see below). Sometimes the alligators are said to be albinos, presumably by analogy with underground-dwelling animals that lose their pigment, like blind cave fish. (The analogy doesn't really work unless there's been a stable breeding population of sewergators for many, many generations, though.) The subject is treated in Brunvand, The Vanishing Hitchhiker.

Documented: Alligators were once found in the sewers of New York City.

The New York Times of February 10, 1935 reported the discovery of an alligator in a sewer near East 123rd Street. It seems to have been a juvenile; to judge from the news account, a few teenagers had no special trouble killing it. Later accounts indicate that several alligators were found in the sewers in the 1930s; these were also apparently juveniles (average length of 2 feet), so this probably indicates that people were dumping baby alligators (once a popular novelty pet), rather than that the 'gators were breeding down there. An eradication campaign is supposed to have been complete by 1937.

References:

• http://tafkac.org/classic/alligators_in_sewers.html