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Posted: 22nd March 2013

Alligator given prosthetic tail
New tail allows alligator to swim again

A seven-foot alligator has been fitted with a prosthetic tail after his original tail was bitten off more than eight years ago.

The alligator, named Mr Stubbs, is now 11 years old and wears a three-foot long rubber tail that has been attached with nylon straps.

Mr Stubbs is thought to be the first ever alligator to have an artificial limb, according to the Phoenix Herpetological Society who fitted the tail.

One of 32 confiscated alligators from the back of a truck in 2005, Mr Stubbs has been at the Arizona-based centre ever since. The then three-year-old alligator was only 20 inches long without his tail.

X-rays showed that Mr Stubbs' vertebrae was crushed where it came to an abrupt end, which proved to experts that it had been bitten off – likely by another alligator.

The centre usually attempts to rehome all of its alligators, however Mr Stubbs spent months with handlers learning to paddle with his front feet, because alligators use their tails to swim.

But the society's president Russ Johnson wanted to do something more.

Marc Jacofsky, executive vice president of research and development at the CORE Institute, which specialises in human orthopaedic care, said he was asked whether the artificial limb would be possible.

"I looked and saw there was enough there that we could probably do something that would involve surgery," he said. "I also liked the idea because it would improve his life.

"Our motto at the CORE Institute is 'keep life in motion', and this certainly fits in with that – I was on board."

After intensely studying the alligator's locomotion, a silicone rubber tail was developed.

It is expected to be a few months before Mr Stubbs is completely used to using his new limb, which comes complete with an orange float to help stabilise him.



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