By Tim Binnall
Veterinarians at a zoo in Nebraska removed a staggering 70 coins from the stomach of an alligator that managed to scarf down the change that had been tossed into its enclosure by wish-making patrons. Announcing the procedure on their Facebook page, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium explained that the peculiar predicament was discovered during a routine examination of the ten American alligators that call the facility home. While conducting the check-up, perturbed vets noticed several "metal foreign objects in the stomach" of a particularly popular leucistic alligator dubbed Thibodaux.
Concerned about what the creature could have consumed, workers quickly brought the "iconic resident of the zoo" in for surgery. During what one imagines was a fairly painstaking process wherein Thibodaux was "anesthetized and intubated," veterinarians carefully removed nearly seven dollars from the animal's stomach in the form of a whopping 70 coins. Alas, how the alligator wound up eating so many of the objects is no mystery as zoo officials indicated that the change had been haphazardly thrown into the reptile enclosure by patrons who were presumably casting wishes. To that end, the site used Thibodaux's surprise surgery as a teachable moment to discourage visitors from such misguided behavior.