Curious Iowa: Why does University of Northern Iowa have alligators living on campus?

Two siblings’ lives have been dedicated to teaching University of Northern Iowa biology students about alligators through hands-on experiences. Their names are Steve and Wally and they are alligators that live in McCollum Science Hall.

A reader of The Gazette wrote to Curious Iowa — a series that answers readers’ questions about our state and how it works — when Wally moved into a new habitat in 2025 wondering how UNI became home to the two scaly critters.

Curious Iowa looked into the lives of Steve and Wally and the valuable experiences they bring to students. In doing so, we found that the first alligator arrived on UNI’s campus more than 115 years ago.

How did UNI acquire alligators Steve and Wally?

Steve I. Gator, named for late Australian wildlife educator and TV personality Steve Irwin, was purchased from a licensed breeder in Ohio in 2005 to draw attention to the zoological side of the biology field.

Since then, Steve has been cared for by UNI biology professor and herpetologist Jeff Tamplin. Before arriving at UNI in 2001, Tamplin taught at Louisiana State University for 15 years. There, he raised and released young alligators his students brought in.

According to UNI, Steve came to the university as an 8-inch hatchling. Today, Steve is almost 5 feet long. He lived in a hallway display in McCollum Science Hall for the first few years of his life until he was moved to a larger area.

In 2007, an Iowa law went into effect that banned the ownership and breeding of dangerous wild animals and their transportation into the state. Provisions in the law allowed UNI to keep Steve.

This law also was the catalyst for another alligator to arrive at McCollum Science Hall.

In 2014, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources contacted Tamplin in the middle of the night after a baby alligator was illegally purchased through the mail.

When he opened the box, he found a half-frozen baby alligator inside.

“And I just grabbed it and pulled it out and then all the postal employees screamed,” Tamplin said in a 2025 interview.

The seized alligator was donated to UNI and named Wally Gator. It turned out that Wally was ordered from the same breeder as Steve.

Alligators’ sex cannot be determined externally. Because Steve’s juvenile coloration lasted for an extended period of time, it pointed to Steve being a female.

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But a recent experience points to Steve being male.

When Carter Danielson, a second-year biology student who cares for Steve and Wally, was moving a cabinet in the lab a few weeks ago, it made a scraping noise. Then, Danielson heard a similar noise from across the room.

“I did it again and I was like, oh my god, I think it’s Steve calling across the room,” Danielson said. He set up his phone to record and dragged the cabinet again, creating a sort of call and response between the cabinet and the alligator.

“It was Steve bellowing to the response of it and so the tone of the bellow kind of helped confirm that we’re pretty certain that Steve is a male,” Danielson said, adding that he had never heard an alligator bellow before.

“It was very interesting because they don’t have vocal cords, so it’s a rush of air that sounds like almost a roar.”

Danielson sent the recording to Tamplin, who concurred that Steve is likely a male alligator.

Wally lived in Steve’s original hallway enclosure until 2025, when Wally was moved to a larger habitat with a 100 gallon tub to enjoy, with plants to hide under and a heat lamp to bask in after a big meal.

When Wally moved into his new home, the university held an event where community members and students could meet the alligator.

Danielson worked alongside Tamplin to prepare Wally for his big day — feeding him and tiring him out before taking photos with UNI President Mark Nook and the crowd that came to see him.

“Wally was super great throughout all of it,” Danielson said. “The community members were really happy to be able to get hands-on with an alligator because in Iowa, we don’t have them.”

Danielson said Wally, who is about 3 feet long, has started to recognize him from feeding sessions.

“People will walk by, they’ll come up to the glass or whatever and then I’ll walk by and he will sprint over and get up against the glass and scratch at it because he gets excited to see people,” Danielson said. “And so it’s interesting to see how the relationship builds with not only us to the animals but also the animals to us.”

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Steve has poor eyesight and is fed in front of his face, via kitchen tongs. Still, when Steve is hungry and hears a running sink, he’ll come over to the glass of his habitat, expecting lab staff to be thawing him a frozen rat.

When Danielson arrived at UNI, he was on the pre-medicine track, but his experiences within the biology department — both in the classroom and Tamplin’s lab — led him to change his focus to plants and animals.

Working alongside the alligators has shown Danielson how “docile” the alligators are.

“I’ll get in Steve’s enclosure and clean out his pond and he’ll get curious and come right next to me … he just wants to know what’s going on,” he said.

When Danielson shows people Steve and Wally, some react with fear.

“But once you reassure people that these are really delicate creatures that should be handled with care but also are not something that we should always be afraid of is really important to people because … here in Iowa, again, we just don’t have alligators.”

Did UNI have alligators prior to Steve and Wally?

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Yes, the first baby alligator, named Ally, sometimes spelled Allie, arrived on the Cedar Falls campus in 1908 after being caught on a beach in south Florida. Ally was transported to Iowa via shoebox.

Ally lived in the original campus greenhouse facility and was cared for by Robert Billings, the campus gardener. Billings had to force feed Ally at first, and used a stick to push beefsteak down the animal’s throat. By 1929, Ally had grown to over 200 pounds and 8 feet long, according to UNI.

Ally was a bit of a campus celebrity, just as Steve and Wally are today. The presence of an alligator attracted visitors to the greenhouse.

In 1936, the school announced that a new greenhouse would be built — but the plans did not include a pool for Ally. Efforts were made to re-home Ally but ultimately, the alligator was shot on July 19, 1938. Reports vary on Ally’s age.

Biology students dissected the body and discovered that Ally was a female alligator. Ally’s skin and skeleton were preserved.

“She had become a part of our campus … Her skeleton may be in the library museum, her anatomy may be used in a biology class; but the spirit of Ally lives on, ” Ruth Culbertson, then editor of The College Eye, wrote on July 22, 1938. “As campus lore and sentiment, Ally yet belongs to the students, traditionally.”

Ally set the precedent that the school was able to care for alligators, bringing a number of cold-blooded creatures to the campus greenhouse over the years.

In 1939, The College Eye reported that David Swanson, of Villisca, had acquired “Allie Jr.” as a prize package with a subscription to the Boy’s Life magazine four years prior and subsequently brought it to college with him. That same year, the paper reported of the arrival of Ike and Mike, two 12-year-old gators who came to the school, then called Iowa State Teachers College, via a man from Davenport.

In the 1960s, another alligator made headlines when students raised $90 to improve its living space. Soon after, it made local and national headlines when it received votes for campus student government positions. In 1969, the alligator was elected “Off Campus Men’s Secretary.” The alligator died that year from a blood clot in its heart after developing a respiratory infection during cold weather.

Steve and Wally are the first alligators to live at UNI since 1969.

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Comments: bailey.cichon@thegazette.com

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