Monroe County — The week of the Florida versus Tennessee football game, people in East Tennessee expect a few swampy sightings here and there.
When a Monroe County woman spotted a gator in her back-yard Tuesday, it certainly was not the plush beady-eyed University of Florida mascot that oddly wears a turtleneck sweater. It was a genuine alligator in the flesh.
When Kaleena McNabb found the creature creeping on her property, she contacted the Monroe County Sheriff's Office and TWRA. Wildlife officer Joe Pike safely captured the animal without causing it any harm. Pike took the alligator to its new home at the Chattanooga Zoo on Wednesday morning.
Many times, alligator sightings end up being caimans or other animals that resemble gators. TWRA says this was a bona fide alligator, measuring around 4 feet in length. Its age has not been determined.
TWRA says there is no chance the alligator migrated here on its own. Like the caimans and other non-native reptiles occasionally found in East Tennessee, it was likely an illegal pet that was released when it grew too large.
The animal showed up in a neighborhood with no nearby bodies of water and less than a quarter-mile from Highway 411, where it could have quickly been released by its owner.
Private ownership of an alligator in Tennessee is illegal. TWRA is investigating who may have brought the animal to Tennessee and who turned it loose. State laws on animal ownership can be found at tnwildlife.org.
Wherever the alligator originated, it is now being cared for at its new home in Chattanooga, roughly 67 miles farther from Neyland Stadium than where it was discovered in Monroe County.