Aug. 13 (UPI) — Wildlife officials in Tennessee are reminding residents not to dump their unwanted pets after a 3-foot alligator was found in a mountain pond.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said Wildlife Officers Dillon Maynard, Ben Davis and Barry Baird were dispatched to a farm pond in Bradley County, along the Appalachian Mountains chain, on a report of a loose alligator.
The officers ended up wrangling a 3-foot gator.
“No, Bradley County isn’t in the alligator’s historic range,” the agency said in a Facebook post.
Tennessee isn’t historically home to alligators, but the agency said in 2018 that wild gators were starting to naturally make their way to the southern border of the state.
The agency said the alligator is believed to be an unwanted pet that was dumped into the wild. The alligator was taken to a new home at a zoo.