Chinese alligators live in eastern China, and they are confined to a small area in the Yangtze River basin near the Pacific Ocean, according to the Saint Louis Zoo. These gators can be found in slow-moving rivers, ponds, lakes and swamps. Last July, a Port Charlotte, Florida-based minor league baseball team arrived at their home field to find a 10-foot alligator in the visitors' dugout. After busting into a suspected criminal’s home, law enforcement discovered illegal substances, four cobras, and a rattlesnake. Back in January 2016, the gator was spotted in the owner’s basement by an appliance repairman. Everything else has been set aside as a wildlife sanctuary. 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Considered an endangered species as recently as 1987, the American alligator has made a roaring comeback, with Florida alone now harboring 1.3 million. This reptile was found in the woods of Staten Island. American alligators live in the southeastern portion of the United States, with largest populations residing in Florida and Louisiana. If you are thinking of obtaining a pet alligator for yourself, first check that it is legal to own a pet gator in your state, and then research the food, supplies and care pet alligators need to thrive, so you know if you are up to the task. They also live in swamps, marshes and lakes.”. Back in 2014, a shopper at a Carlisle, Pennsylvania grocery store unwittingly released a pet alligator in the produce aisle. Pretty much if you're in Florida and there's water anywhere, there's basically a 99 percent chance it has one or more gators in it. There are only two countries in the world where alligators live: the United States of America and China. In 2013, local deputies served a drug-related warrant at his home. Still, at 7 a.m. one Monday morning, a science teacher spotted it ambling along in the parking lot. It took nearly a week to remove the reptile from the park, which was partially shut down during the search for the animal. The 3-foot-long animal was safely removed from the woods and taken to an animal care center. Perhaps the most chilling warning the FWC has made for all residents of and visitors to Florida is "Do assume there are alligators in every area of freshwater." Down in Florida, when a gator clambers into somebody’s swimming pool, most police deputies don’t even bat an eye. RELATED VIDEO: Alligator Snaps At Man Who Grabs Its Tail For A Photo. The reptile is now getting acclimated to its new home at Indian Creek Zoo in Lambertville, Michigan. The SPCA was able to arrange a transfer for the baby gator. Over the past year, strange alligator sightings have occurred all over the United States. The reptile is now living at a nature preserve in the South. The experts, who believe the animal is a former pet, drained the pond and caught the gator in the shallow water left over. Regardless of whether you live in an area where gators are native or not, you should never approach any alligator you see. That's not being snarky, either — the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimated there are as many as 1.3 million alligators in Florida. Although they didn’t find any drugs, the man was written up for illegally owning an alligator without a permit. One Sherlington, Louisiana resident came home one morning in April 2016 to an uninvited houseguest. After removing the alligator from his pool and placing it in a tank, he called his local SPCA. “It was every bit of 200 pounds,” said an official with the IDNR. The owner was terrified to find a 9-foot, 5-inch alligator climbing up his steps. As he geared up for a meeting later that day, he spotted the intruder in his living room. But members of Vero Beach’s force were truly stunned to discover a live one at the bottom of a residential hot tub. Not surprisingly, the alligators on the island don’t discriminate between sanctuary land and NASA’s campus. The toddler has yet to be found by authorities and wildlife officials. In March 2012, a Florida congressman was attending a funeral on Merritt Island. It is illegal to own a pet alligator in Kansas City, so the animal was safely removed from the home and placed in a wildlife rescue that is home to several other former pet gators. July 2019 in Chicago, Illinois: Dubbed Chance the Snapper by locals, a 5-ft. gator caused a stir in Chicago when it was spotted in a lagoon inside the city’s Humboldt Park. After warning students and staff away from the pond, the school called in experts from a local zoo to help. Recently, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources confirmed that a man in Lansing—a suburb of Chicago—had unlawfully kept an alligator in his basement for 26 years. Disney World closed all of its resort beaches. In the wake of Tuesday night's awful event, Disney World closed all of its resort beaches on Wednesday. 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When one Brookeville resident dialed 911 and announced that an alligator was lounging in his backyard koi pond, he was met with skepticism. The press nicknamed him “Allie.” On Halloween night in 2013, this juvenile gator was found cowering under an escalator near Baggage Claim 3 at O’Hare International Airport. Although it was evidently someone’s pet, the owner of this tiny commuter has never come forth. Thanks to careless pet owners, the big reptiles are also causing trouble above and beyond the Mason-Dixon line. “About one in ten survived,” the man noted. According to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, “the American alligator is found in the United States from North Carolina to the Rio Grande in Texas. As the service progressed, a 6-foot-long alligator made itself right at home beneath his vehicle. Today, gators and humans cross paths at an alarming rate—and not just in the South. The reptile enthusiast later faced misdemeanor charges for having illegally purchased the animal. He is unsure how the animal ended up in New York, but did his part to care for the out of place critter. “I saw something wave at me, and it was [an] alligator’s tail,” he told the press. Animal Control officers helped remove the animal from the lake and brought it to a wildlife rescue center. “Because either they’re embarrassed or they don’t know where to go, they just release them into the wild.”. Before every landing, a special crew is tasked with chasing gators off NASA’s runways, where the big reptiles enjoy basking on the hot asphalt. But every population boom has its side effects. But there’s been gator sightings in Chicago, New York and Connecticut just in July of this year. After putting up a fight, the three-footer was removed and given to the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo—but not before it devoured a few hundred dollars’ worth of koi. “We’ve got gators blocking doorways, hiding under cars, [and] climbing fences,” the island’s deputy refuge manager has said. Instead of notifying the authorities, he spent an entire year feeding raw chicken to his backyard freeloader. Once the homeowner was arrested, he turned over all six animals to specialist officers. Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection was unable to confirm the sighting, but asked East Lyme residents to keep an eye out and come forward with any additional information about gator sightings around Powers Lake. Merritt Island also happens to be home to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Nobody knows how a 7-foot alligator found its way onto the fenced-in campus of a Tampa magnet school. The American alligator lives in the southern United States, from North Carolina to Texas, according to the Smithsonian Zoo. From a Chicago airport to a British bathtub, here are a few of the weirdest spots where live alligators have turned up. The American alligator lives on the east coast of the USA from North Carolina to Texas. Though the Administration owns 46,000 acres of land there, only 6000 are used for its space program. “He was pretty feisty,” the Deputy Inspector told reporters. Still, when a two-foot alligator decided to jaywalk across 9th Avenue last July, people definitely took notice. “Rest in peace.”. Thinking fast, he alerted his colleagues and made sure that every single student was confined to the cafeteria. If you live in a landlocked state and think your only chance of seeing an alligator is at a zoo, think again. Alligators are massive reptiles that can grow up to 10 feet in length, and weigh as much as 500 pounds. You never know when you’ll run into one. They are commonly found all over Florida and Louisiana, as well as in Southern parts of Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. Guests can lounge on pristine, white sand beaches everywhere from Disney's Beach Club Resort to Clementine Beach at Fort Wilderness. October 2018 in Waukegan, Illinois: A kayaker enjoying Lake Michigan, discovered a real 4-ft. gator with its mouth taped shut when they paddled over to investigate what they thought was a gator-shaped pool float. Wildlife officers promptly relocated the critter. Despite the gator’s temperament, some of Manhattan’s finest couldn’t resist joking about it. Authorities are unsure how the gator go into the woods, but believe the reptile could be a former pet. A licensed trapper was called in to help get rid of it. Visitors have seen and even filmed encounters with alligators at Disney World, but nothing this serious has ever happened in almost 30 years. The Chinese alligator is endangered and lives only in the valley of the Yangtze River. July 2019 in East Lyme, Connecticut: Officials responded to a reported alligator sighting in East Lyme’s Powers Lake.