The elusive alligator who lurked in the shallow waters of the Chattahoochee River in metro Atlanta is gone. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources caught and transported the Hooch gator to what they hope is a safer place.
This is what we know about the Hooch gator.
PHOTOS: The Chattahoochee alligator
THE FIRST SIGHTINGS
This gator lived in the Cochran Shoals area along the Chattahoochee River for the better part of a decade. It was first spotted in 2007. In recent weeks and months, it reemerged and was seen by hundreds of people.
In March 2016, a wildlife photographer captured images showing the gator sunning itself on the warm banks.
BOY OR GIRL?
Wildlife officials said they were able to determine that the gator is a girl.
HOW IT GOT HERE
No one is 100 percent sure how the gator got to North Georgia. It could have migrated north from South Georgia where gators thrive. John Bowers with DNR said a gator being this far north is rare.
"They're cold-blooded animals and the temperatures and climate and habitats that are most suitable for alligators are all below the fall line."
ITS SIZE
It is 6-feet-8-inches long even though about a foot of its tail is cut off. The DNR said they did not know how it was cut off or how long it has been this way.
WHY IT LEFT
Bowers said North Georgia is no place for a gator.
"Alligators just do not belong in North Georgia and certainly not in the metro Atlanta area."
When temperatures reached a record-high for the day on March 18, the National Park Service closed the trail to "minimize the stress on the gator".
At the time, the National Park Service said it was working with the Department of Natural Resources and wildlife biologists to come up with potential solutions for the gator.
Photos | Hooch gator leaves metro Atlanta
WHERE IT WENT
DNR officials took the gator to an alligator range in South Georgia. They won't give specifics but they said it was somewhere below the fall line.
