According to the National Zoo, people looking to encounter the American alligator might want to head to the southeast. The zoo’s website lists the alligator’s habitat as ranging from “the northern coasts of North Carolina to Lake Worth in central Texas.” That doesn’t mean that these creatures can’t be found elsewhere, though — something some Washington, D.C. residents now know very well.
That’s because an alligator, albeit a small one, turned up in a body of water connected to the Potomac River on Thursday. As Juan Benn Jr. reported for The Washington Post, local authorities first caught sight of the alligator in the Washington Channel that day, alerting area residents of its presence. Eventually, one nearby resident was able to catch the alligator using a net.
It’s worth mentioning here that this alligator was not fully grown, and was about two feet in length. (Fully grown alligators can be much, much longer.) According to the Post‘s reporting, animal control took the alligator into custody. That isn’t its final destination, however; it will ultimately make its way to an animal sanctuary in Pennsylvania.
Scientists Drugged Alligators In Order To Understand Dinosaur Hearing
The reptiles were drugged with ketamine as part of an unusual experiment.This isn’t the only instance of an alligator showing up in places where alligators aren’t traditionally found. In 2023, an underfed alligator surfaced in Brooklyn, New York; locals also found the remains of an alligator in Martha’s Vineyard earlier this summer. In other cases, the appearance of alligators is more understandable, as was the case in Pennsylvania, where a Walmart recently prohibited one man from bringing his emotional support alligator back into the store.
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