DNR searching for alligator spotted in Lake Lanier

HALL COUNTY, Ga. — The Georgia Department of Natural Resources are warning swimmers and boaters to beware of an alligator that’s been spotted in Lake Lanier over the past few weeks.

At least two fishermen and one boater have reported seeing the gator, as recently as a few days ago.

Jim Brown told Channel 2’s Tom Regan that he was pulling back into his dock on the north end of the lake, opposite Don Carter State Park, when he saw it. He says at first he thought it was a large gar fish poking out of the water.

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“I looked a little closer and noticed the head, and so I got my cellphone out and started taking video of it,” he said. “I just couldn't believe it. We were seeing a two-foot long alligator in Lake Lanier. It was just a few feet off my dock here as we were coming in.” %

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Gator sightings are very rare in Lake Lanier.

“I've been here in Gainesville for about 12 years, and this is third report on the lake that I guess I can recall,” DNR regional supervisor Ken Riddleberger said.

The natural habitat for gators in Georgia is below the so-called “fall line” stretching from Columbus to Augusta. It separates Georgia’s coastal plain from the Piedmont region.

Riddleberger suspects someone brought the gator to metro Atlanta from south Georgia or Florida when it was baby, and let it go when it started to get too big.

“Because of its size, it couldn’t get up here by itself. It had help from somebody to get it up to north Georgia. And when they had enough of the alligator, they dumped it. It's not legal to possess an alligator as a pet,” he said.

Brown told Regan that the calm behavior of the reptile was strange, almost like it had been domesticated.

“They typically won't let you get close, but this one allowed us to drift within twenty feet of it. I had dogs and I was moving around the boat,” he said.

DNR rangers say the alligator poses little danger as long as you don’t mess with it.

'If you tried to catch it, obviously it's going to protect itself from being caught. You might get bit then,” Riddleberger said.

He says that because of the alligator’s small size and little experience in the wild, it may not survive the winter.

If it becomes a nuisance, they may try to catch it and relocate it in south Georgia.

Cox Media Group