Lanier gator caught

GAINESVILLE – State wildlife officials captured an alligator - believed to be the one spotted seveal times in Lake Lanier recently - Thursday night.

Jeremy Baldwin said his grandfather alerted him around 8 p.m. of the reptile lying in a pasture behind Allen Screen Company on Mountain View Road.

Baldwin said when the state Department of Natural Resources attempted to capture the gator it did not go easy. “It was hissing, wiggling; it did not like that too much.”

DNR Spokesman Rick Lavender said the gator is believed to be the same one spotted several times over the last month in the Flat Creek area of Lake Lanier.

“The home is about 250 yards from Flat Creek and this alligator was slightly over 3 feet, which would fit the reports of the one we have been after,” Lavender said.

DNR is unsure how the reptile that far away from the lake.

Lavender said that they will keep the gator until they can find a licensed facility or some appropriate habitat down in South Georgia to release him.

“He’s headed to a better place than Lake Lanier,” he added.