Blue Crab Boulevard

The enormous sinkhole in Texas that opened up last week is rapidly becoming a lake - and it has a new resident: an alligator.

Houston (AP) - The giant Texas sinkhole that formed last week in Liberty County is now a lake big enough to become the home of an alligator.

Area residents believe the reptile was washed into the 600-foot-diameter crater by water from surrounding swamps.

Ground water is seeping into the hole, and its exposed walls are about 30 feet high, the Houston Chronicle reported in its online edition on Friday.

Sightings of an alligator in the sinkhole were confirmed Friday when a Texas Railroad Commission worker snapped photographs for proof.

Danny Diaz, a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden, said a patch of crude oil floating on the east side of the crater might irritate the alligator's skin, but the reptile is using the water on the other side.

"It's not really safe for anyone to climb down into that hole now to get anything out," said Diaz, pointing to stress cracks in the ground that encircle the hole. "The sinkhole could start growing again, especially if we get a saturating rain."

The hole has claimed everything from vehicles to oil tanks and is somewhere around 900 feet across at its widest point. It is also more than 250 feet deep. A pretty good picture of it is over at Fox News. On the bright side, homeowners in the area now own lakefront property.