An alligator has been spotted in a Pennsylvania lake, hundreds of miles from its natural habitat.
The five-foot-long reptile startled witnesses who spotted it near a boat dock on Lake Erie on Sunday.
“We’ve been very diligent in making sure we’re keeping an eye on the water and, of course, the land,” said Julie Slomski, executive director of the Port Authority. Information and Communications Technology Training Team (WNCT).
“We haven’t seen anyone since. We have a team monitoring our entire area and of course the water to make sure everyone is safe.”
She believes the creature may have been an exotic pet that was released into the lake.
An alligator was spotted in a Pennsylvania lake hundreds of miles from its natural habitat
“The concern is that if someone were to release it into the bay like we’ve heard has happened, it would be disappointing because, again, it would put a lot of people in danger besides the alligator itself,” Slomski said.
Authorities are now working to catch the animal before it succumbs to the harsh winter.
“They go into a kind of hibernation called brumation, where they don’t eat as much during the winter and their bodies slow down because they’re cold-blooded unlike us and other mammals that are warm-blooded,” added Darren Julius, reptile keeper at the Erie Zoo.
‘They need the sun, they need the heat to be able to metabolize anything they eat.
Based on the alligator’s size and description, experts believe the animal is between two and four years old.
The public is urged to keep their distance if they see the alligator.
The five-foot reptile startled witnesses who spotted it near a boat dock on Lake Erie on Sunday.
However, Julius insists that “he’s definitely more afraid of you than you are of him.”
“It will probably swim away from you as soon as you get within about 10 feet of it. It won’t actually go for you,” Julius added.
The Port Authority asks people to call them if they detect any incident at 814-455-7557 extension 223 so that their team can follow up.
Although there has been an increase in some areas, alligator attacks in the United States remain relatively rare and only a fraction of them are fatal.
Florida is known to be home to alligators, with an average of eight fatal bites per year recorded over the past 10 years.
However, the number of attacks has increased by 66 percent in recent years, from six per year between 1971 and 1986, to ten per year between 1987 and 2017.