Florida's Dr. Snakehead is making a house call

Dr. Snakehead's secret identity is Walter R. Courtenay Jr., and he's an ichthyologist, brought out of retirement by the government out of concern about snakehead sightings around the country. This is easily a better concept than half of the new network programs to air this fall. Not surprisingly, the authorities put up the Snakehead Signal and Courtenay is in Maryland.

"These stories tend to get exaggerated and take on a life of their own," said Paul Shafland, director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's nonnative fish research lab in South Florida. "You hear the fish have teeth, they breathe air. Pretty soon you hear they climb trees, they eat dogs, they tap-dance, whatever."

They climb trees and eat dogs?