‘Garbage gator?’ ‘Dundee?’ ‘Allie?’ Port Royal needs your help naming an alligator
Friends of Cypress Wetlands is asking for the public’s help in naming a new alligator sculpture that’s been guarding the entrance to the popular wildlife sanctuary in Port Royal since November.
The contest ends Dec. 31.
The sculpture of a full-sized alligator was unveiled in November at the wetlands, which is home to real gators and countless species of birds. Artist Cathy Pender Emmert created the exhibit out of rebar, steel, copper, chain link and welded wire mesh. She was commissioned by the not-for-profit Friends of Cypress Wetlands, a group that raises awareness about the popular wetlands and rookery in the heart of the town.
The 7.5-foot-long metal gator is stuffed with trash collected from the wetlands as a reminder of how garbage can harm animals that live in local waters.
But the gator is still nameless.
Since the contest was announced, 22 entries and counting have been submitted, including “Allie,” “Garbage Gator,” “PRinCess of the Wetlands,” “Dundee” and the “Littergator,” according to the namecontest.com web site the group is using for the contest.
Friends is asking residents to submit possible names at https://namecontests.com/ch1y0dpg/entries or “like” a name that’s already been submitted.
The Friends of Cypress Wetlands will announce the winner in January.
Along with Sands Beach, Port Royal Cypress Wetlands and Rookery is one of the town’s most popular attractions and one of the most important rookeries in the Lowcountry. A boardwalk cuts through it, giving visitors a front-row seat to watch great egret, snowy egret, tri-color heron, little blue heron, black-crowned night herons, green herons and white ibis hunting for crabs and toads in the shallow waters and roosting and nesting in the trees. Alligators and turtles and other swamp creatures also live there.
