Alligators are common in Florida and the humid tropics of the southeastern United States. Further north, in New York, an alligator was found alive, but in very poor condition, in a park in Brooklyn, the municipality announced on Monday, according to AFP.

The rare discovery of the animal, likely abandoned by its owner, was made Sunday morning in a pond in Prospect Park, the great green lung of the Brooklyn borough, the Parks and Recreation Service said in a statement. of New York.

Park rangers in the metropolis pulled the alligator – 1.2 meters long – out of the water “in poor condition and very lethargic,” the report said.

“Fortunately, no one was hurt, the animal is under observation,” she was immediately sent to the Bronx Zoo, another area of ​​New York.

Without naming or identifying the person responsible for the alligator’s unusual presence in the city, the Department of Open Space warned that “it is illegal to release animals into New York City parks.”

The animal, which is used to a “warm tropical climate”, probably suffered “heat shock” in the cold water of the pond in Prospect Park, even though it was a pleasant 10 degrees Celsius in New York on Sunday morning.

“Parks are not a suitable habitat for these types of animals, domestic or otherwise. “It can be dangerous for passers-by (…), can destroy natural species and change water quality.”

The last publicized sighting of this species of reptile in New York was in June 2001, when authorities, media and observers hunted a stray caiman in Central Park for five days.