A two-foot-long alligator found Monday in Walker County likely was dumped by someone who first tried to raise the reptile as a pet, animal rescue workers and a Chattanooga biologist said.
A group of children called 911 operators to report seeing the alligator near a swimming area.
The gator was trapped by Walker County Animal Shelter workers in a puddle near a small creek off Burnt Mill Road in south Walker County, said Ashley Bruton, an animal shelter employee.
Now that it has been captured, it will be transported by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to South Georgia, home to the Okefenokee and other swamps.
The reptile could not naturally survive some of the chilly winters in North Georgia, Ms. Bruton said. It likely was dumped by someone who captured it in a warmer climate and brought it to the area, she said.
That's a view shared by Dave Collins, curator of forests at the Tennessee Aquarium.
"Really, almost any alligator up in this area is more than likely a released animal," Mr. Collins said.
Alligators don't live naturally in areas north of the Georgia Fall Line, which crosses the state east to west about the level of Macon, he said.
"Because alligators are doing so well in the coastal areas, someone could have captured it as a juvenile and thought it could make a good pet, but then realized they no longer could or wanted to keep it," Mr. Collins said.
The alligators could have survived short-term for a few warm winters or in waters that artificially are warmed by a power plant, he said, but a normal cold winter likely would cause the cold-blooded reptile to die.