Alligator found roaming mountains of East Tennessee. How did it get there?

An alligator was found in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee, and that’s not supposed to happen.

The discovery was announced in a Sept. 12 Facebook post by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, which noted catching alligators is “not the norm” for its staff.

Two wildlife officers trapped the alligator in the Whites Creek area of Rhea County, about 75 miles west of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Whites Creek is a community on the banks of the 39,000-acre Watts Bar Reservoir.

The juvenile, which was about 4 feet long, was taken to the Chattanooga Zoo, officials said. Zoo staff told McClatchy News the fate of the alligator will be revealed next week.

Alligators are not native to Tennessee, but “are naturally expanding their range” north in recent years, the state says.

However, Rhea County is about 365 miles from southwest Tennessee, where there have been “several confirmed sightings” in Shelby and Hardin Counties, the state reports.

TWA officials believe the alligator found in Rhea County was “captive raised” by someone and then released into the wild, perhaps because it grew too big.

The same explanation was suggested in 2021, when a 3-foot alligator was found in a Bradley County farm pond, about 100 miles southwest of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

“Alligators can survive Tennessee winters by going into a hibernation-like dormancy called brumation,” the state says. “They can withstand periods of ice by sticking their snout out of the water before it freezes which allows them to continue breathing.”

This story was originally published September 14, 2023 at 9:54 AM with the headline "Alligator found roaming mountains of East Tennessee. How did it get there?."