There's a picture of it swimming -- but so far searchers have failed to turn up an elusive crocodile or alligator in Hamilton waterways.

And now one zoo expert is likening it to a sighting of the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland.

Bry Loyst, curator of the Indian River Reptile Zoo near Peterborough, Ont., was called in to take part in a search of a pond in Confederation Park Tuesday evening.

He says the pond connects to rivers and sewers so the croc or gator really could be anywhere -- if it was ever really there at all.

Loyst thinks if it is a crocodile it was someone's pet and they released it, likely because it was too big -- but no further searches are planned unless there's another sighting.

He says reptile smuggling is big business in Canada, worth millions if not billions of dollars, and is right up there money-wise with gun and drug smuggling.