Because of the terrible mauling of a Stamford resident by a 200-pound chimpanzee, Connecticut authorities — up to the Attorney General — have become hyper-vigilant about the potential for animal attacks.

Reports have surfaced of a crocodile in the vicinity of Twin Brooks Park, a nature preserve in Trumbull. The sighting comes only two weeks after the state's Department of Environmental Protection picked up a baby alligator in Canoe Brook Lake a few miles away. Police are referring to the latest report as a copy-croc incident and say that the reptile remains at large. No explanation has been offered for where either might have come from.

In light of all of this, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is questioning the wisdom of permitting three South African cheetahs to be housed on a farm near several Greenwich schools. The Zoological Center at Lionshare Farms has applied to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to import the cheetahs and add them to their stable of rare and endangered species, including hyenas and — you guessed it — a lion, a tiger and a bear.

Blumenthal points out that the Parkway Elementary School and the Greenwich and Whitby Catholic Schools are close to the farm. And he cites the attack by the Stamford chimpanzee as one reason to be cautious.

Oh, my.