WELLINGTON, Kan. — The carcass of an American alligator has been found in a south-central Kansas river, and wildlife officials say the animal was likely being kept as a pet before being released into the wild when it got too big.
Kansas City television station WDAF reports that a Kansas Department of Transportation worker recently discovered the carcass in the Ninnescah River in Sumner County as he worked along the river bank. A zoologist determined the reptile, which is native to the southeastern U.S., was about 3 years old.
Alligators can’t survive the harsh winters of the Midwest and Plains states out in the wild.
