An alligator has been spotted in a Pennsylvania lake, hundreds of miles from its natural habitat.
The five-foot-long reptile stunned witnesses when they spotted it at a boat dock in Lake Erie on Sunday.
“We have done everything we can to monitor the water and of course the land,” Julie Slomski, executive director of the port authority, told WNCT number.
“We haven’t had a single sighting since then. We have a team that monitors our entire footprint and of course on the water, to make sure everyone is safe.”
She suspects it was an exotic pet that was released into the lake.
An alligator has been spotted in a Pennsylvania lake, hundreds of miles from its natural habitat
“The concern is that if someone were to just release the animal into the bay, as we’ve heard, it would be disappointing because it would endanger not only the alligator itself, but a lot of people,” Slomski said.
Officials are now working to capture the animal before it succumbs to the harsh winter.
“They go into a sort of hibernation, called brumation, where they don’t eat as much in the winter and their bodies slow down because they’re cold-blooded as opposed to us and other mammals that are warm-blooded,” adds Darren Julius, reptile keeper at the Erie Zoo.
‘They need the sun and warmth to digest everything they eat.
Experts estimate that the alligator is approximately two to four years old based on its size and description.
The public is urged to keep their distance if they see the alligator.
The 5-foot reptile stunned witnesses who spotted it near a pier in Lake Erie on Sunday
Julius emphasizes, however, that the animal is ‘certainly more afraid of you than you are of the animal’.
“He probably just swims away once you get within 10 feet of him. He doesn’t really chase you,” Julius added.
Port authorities are asking people to contact them if they see anything. They can call 814-455-7557, extension 223, so their team can investigate.
Although there has been an increase in some areas, alligator attacks in the US are still relatively rare and only a fraction of them are fatal.
Florida is known as the home of alligators, with an average of eight fatal bites per year 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.