Alligator Found in Tennessee Lake

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The alligator clearly wasn’t from around here. Tennessee wildlife officers discovered a 5-foot alligator Sunday in Watts Bar Lake near Spring City, about 60 miles south of Knoxville.

"It was on a log sunning itself like a turtle," said Dan Hicks, spokesman for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Prior to the encounter, Watts Bar’s gator population by all accounts was zero. Action by TWRA officer Burton Capps has restored that census.

"He was able to get close enough to it and euthanize it," Hicks said.

Alligators are not indigenous to Tennessee, and the state’s climate is too cold to support a reproducing population. So when they’re sighted, it’s almost invariably because humans brought them here.

"Somebody probably bought this one as a pet down in Florida and kept it until it got too large and uncontrollable," Hicks said. "That’s when they just let it go."

Hicks said the Watts Bar alligator will be stuffed by a taxidermist and used as an educational display.

"When somebody says alligators aren’t found in Tennessee, we can point to it and say, ‘This one was,’" Hicks said.

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Information from: The Knoxville News Sentinel, http://www.knoxnews.com