A Nile crocodile, thousands of miles from its native Africa, was captured alive over the weekend in Everglades National Park.

A criminal investigation has been opened by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission into how the reptile got there. Agency spokesman Jorge Pino said investigators think it escaped from a facility in the vicinity that has Nile crocodiles and they are conducting DNA tests to confirm this.

The crocodile is a young one, with a length of about five and a half feet.

But the species is the second-largest crocodile species in the world, behind only the saltwater crocodile of the Pacific and Indian oceans. It is capable of a reaching a length of 20 feet, dwarfing the native alligators and crocodiles of the Everglades.

Members of a volunteer group called the Swamp Apes spotted the crocodile in the park's Chekika area while looking for Burmese pythons, non-native snakes that have infested the park. A group of employees from various agencies cornered the crocodile in a canal, where it was captured.

Allowing the species to escape into the wild is a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500 and jail time of up to six months.

The Nile crocodile is thought to be responsible for 275 to 745 attacks on people a year, most of them fatal, making it the third-most dangerous species in Africa, after the lion and hippopotamus, according to the Crocodile Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

dfleshler@tribune.com, 954-356-4535