By Mark Price
The Charlotte Observer
HALL COUNTY, Ga. — Alligators aren’t supposed to be in north Georgia, but you’ll have a hard time convincing one Hall County sheriff’s deputy who found himself trying to outrun one that popped out of a pond.
Hall County is northeast of Atlanta, about 130 miles north of the known range for alligators in Georgia, state officials told McClatchy News.
The dangerous encounter happened around 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 5, as Hall County’s K9 teams were training in a rural area southeast of Gainesville, Georgia, the sheriff’s office said in a March 6 news release.
“The deputy was laying a track for a K9 team when he heard a hissing sound and saw the alligator with its mouth open,” the sheriff’s office said.
“The alligator, estimated to be between 7 and 9 feet in length, charged at the deputy who was able to run up an embankment and evade the animal. He was not injured.”
A drone sent to investigate from the air on March 6 revealed an alligator quietly resting at the surface of the water.
The reptile is apparently being allowed to stay for the time being, after officials concluded it lives in an area too remote to pose a community threat.
“While the pond is located in an area not typically accessible to the public, HCSO is encouraging citizens to take precautions around the water in that area, including the stream that feeds the pond,” the sheriff’s office said.
“As a result of (the) sighting, HCSO will be installing warning signs, cautioning the public about alligators, snakes and other wildlife that may pose a danger.”
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources was notified and wildlife experts suspect the alligator was put there by someone.
“Not sure that we will ever know for certain how it got there, but placement is most likely,” DNR Outreach Specialist Melissa Cummings told McClatchy News.
“It is possible that this was an alligator that was part of an older program (no longer allowed) where chicken farm owners could get a permit to place an alligator on a property pond to be a disposal area for chicken carcasses.”
“According to Hall County, this pond is not typically accessible to the public, so it may have been there for a while and gone unnoticed.”
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