A Hall County deputy was preparing for training Tuesday morning when he heard a hissing sound.
That’s when he saw an alligator, with its mouth stretched open, coming toward him near an Allen Creek Road pond.
“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,” the Hall sheriff’s office posted on social media. “He was not injured.”
The alligator wasn’t injured, either. But the Georgia Department of Natural Resources was notified, and the sheriff’s office plans to install warning signs reminding those in the area about alligators, snakes and other wildlife. Another deputy returned to the area Wednesday and captured an image of the gator.
Just like the University of Florida gators, alligators aren’t usually at home in North Georgia, according to the state DNR.
There are about 200,000 to 250,000 alligator residents in Georgia. They typically live south of a line running from Columbus to Augusta.
“There is no evidence that alligator populations reproduce north of the fall line, and any found in these areas have probably been relocated there by humans,” the DNR website states. “Alligators usually remain in the area where they were born for two to three years and then begin looking for their own range.”
And while alligators are important to nature, they don’t always play nicely with humans.
From 1980 through last year, there were nine reported cases of alligator attacks on humans in Georgia, including one fatality in 2007, according to the DNR. On Oct. 5, 2007, an 83-year-old Canadian woman was attacked and killed by an 8-foot alligator on Skidaway Island while house-sitting for her son, according to investigators.
In 2016, a 2-year-old boy died after being dragged into the water near a Walt Disney World resort.
While the Hall County pond where the alligator was seen Wednesday is located in an area not typically accessible to the public, the sheriff’s office is warning those in the area to be careful.
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