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The alligator was captured on Wednesday, and it was measured at 4 feet, 2 inches, state officials said. Full-grown females can reach 9 feet in North Carolina, and the males will top 13 feet and weigh 500 pounds, the state says<\/p>\n
N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission photo<\/p>\n
Alligators are not native to the Raleigh area, but one was just caught along the 3000 block of N.C. 231 in nearby Johnston County, according to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.<\/p>\n
It was discovered by a property owner, who noticed something with very big teeth was in his pond.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe called and said: \u2018There\u2019s an alligator in my pond.\u2019 So I went out there and sure enough, there was an alligator in this little half-acre pond,\u201d District 3 Wildlife Biologist Greg Batts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s about 70 miles as the crow flies from where you\u2019d find an alligator, and about 200 miles in terms of river travel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The alligator was captured on Wednesday, and measured at 4 feet, 2 inches. That\u2019s smallish in North Carolina. Full-grown females reach 9 feet in state, and males will top 13 feet and weigh 500 pounds, the commission says.<\/p>\n
Once bound with electrical tape, the gator was put in a dog kennel and hauled to the Broadway Zoological Park<\/a> in Harnett County, where it will stay. Releasing it back into the wild is not an option, because it\u2019s unclear if the alligator carries diseases not found in the native population, Batts said.<\/p>\n It will likely never be known where the alligator came from. However, state officials say it got in the pond with the help of someone acting illegally.<\/p>\n Alligators cannot be kept as household pets in North Carolina, but that doesn\u2019t stop some people from trying.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has gotten to the point where we get three to four alligators a year in the Piedmont. It\u2019s our belief that people had it as a pet, it got too big, and they released it,\u201d Batts said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are cute when they are 12- to 14-inches long, but then they get big and too unruly to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n The site where the alligator was found in Johnston County is not far from the Little River, and it\u2019s possible someone freed the alligator there, and it found the pond while wandering, Batts said.<\/p>\n This marks the third alligator caught in Johnston County since 2018, he says. Two have been caught in Wake County since 2020 (one more than 6.5 feet long), and three were caught in the same pond in Wayne County, Batts said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not about alligators making their way from the coast. Alligators don\u2019t live in the Piedmont for a reason. The middle part of the state is too cold for them,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you move things from areas they are native to, they are always a problem. It alters ecosystems and there are unintended consequences. … It\u2019s also dangerous. Alligators bite.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Where alligators live in NC<\/p>\n Eastern North Carolina is the northernmost range<\/a> for alligators in the U.S., and most of the state\u2019s alligator-related nuisance calls come from New Hanover and Brunswick counties, the state says.<\/p>\n \u201cIn North Carolina, they inhabit freshwater areas mostly east of Robeson County northward to Gates County,\u201d the commission says. \u201cThe largest populations live in the coastal counties of Brunswick, New Hanover, Craven, Columbus, Onslow and Pender.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of that region is also a coastal tourism hub, which means visitors may find themselves suddenly crossing paths with potentially deadly alligators.<\/p>\n North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission District 3 biologist Greg Batts holds 4-foot, 2-inch alligator that found its way to Johnston County. N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission photo How did it get there?<\/p>\n