Thursday, January 24, 2002
Bizzare Shifts in Lake Alice Ecocycle Baffle Authorities
By ORSON SCOTT
Sun Staff Writer
After a long dry spell, the people of Florida rejoiced as the rains finally came last week. Ecologists began this week eager to measure water levels at Lake Alice, hoping for significant absorbtion rates to revitalize the struggling plant life around the Lake.
However, ecologists were baffled when findings reflected that the absorbtion patterns were drastically deviating from previous ones. The Lake is retaining when it should be draining, and at times, draining when it should be retaining. Scientists theorize that the strange fluctuations are a result of minute structural changes in the bottom of the Lake, which could be caused by small seizmic shifts, or possibly even irregular nesting patterns in the alligators.
According to UF groundskeepers, the alligators seem to be experiencing all kinds of strange changes in their behavior patterns. The alligators are evidently becoming more agressive. There have been reports of at least three attacks in the past month. These animals, which previously had very regular behavior patterns, and now becoming quite intractable, and UF officials are baffled by the change.
And in the perhaps the most bizzare turn of events thus far, an alligator corpse was recently recovered from the lake, and it seems to have been mauled by a bear no more than a few weeks ago. This turn of events has authorities completely confounded, as the possibility of a bear in Gainesville, not to mention in the vicinity of Lake Alice, which lies in the heart of the University, is very unlikely. Representatives for the University of Florida commented that its own staff would look into these bizarre shifts in the ecosystem, and do whatever needs to be done to set things aright.