"We had to wrestle it Steve Irwin style," National Parks and Wildlife Service spokesman John Dengate said. "But it was big enough to give us a bit of trouble before we grabbed it."

Although authorities initially believed the animal was a saltwater crocodile, it was later found to be an alligator, Mr Dengate said. "The distinguishing features are alligators have shorter rounder snouts, and there's a difference in the scale pattern," he said. There was no way the alligator - which is native to Florida, in the US - could have made its own way to Pambula, Mr Dengate said.

"The Far South Coast is outside the animal's natural range - it could not survive here during winter," he said. "We don't know where it came from but it's likely that it's an escaped pet.

"The fact it's an alligator is more intriguing, because it's rather more difficult to get your hands on an alligator in Australia than a croc." A permit was required to keep an alligator as a pet, Mr Dengate said, although he suspected this reptile had been obtained and kept illegally. Police checks confirmed no one living in the area was licensed to keep such animals.

Fortunately, no scouts were staying at the camp when the reptile was discovered, but about 20 people had been camping there, police said. The capture of the alligator was also good news for other wildlife.

"The wetland area where it was found has a popular form of endangered frogs living there ... the last thing we want is for an introduced [reptile] to eat its way through a community of endangered frogs," Mr Dengate said. The alligator has been taken to Mogo Zoo, Mr Dengate said. Anyone with information about the alligator can call the NPWS environment line on 131 555. Calls can be anonymous.

Gorged parrots at risk Meanwhile, the NPWS has also pleaded with truck drivers to cover their trucks properly, after reports that more than 20 endangered superb parrots died near Canberra after eating too much spilled grain.

"It's very attractive to them and they sit there eating it, unaware that a car is coming along at 110kmh," Mr Dengate said. "They just stuff themselves with the grain - it's a marvellous food resource and a lot of the birds are feeding chicks at the moment so they are hungry - but the more they eat the slower they become. "A car comes along and their natural instincts don't serve them well, and they end up on the grille of the car."

The NPWS has received reports of dozens of the endangered parrots dying near Galong, where many grain transporters were travelling due to the harvest season, Mr Dengate said. "We only found two [dead birds] but that's not to say there weren't more because foxes might have [eaten them]," he said.

"Superb parrots are quite rare ... and that's the only area they are found in state." The total population of the superb parrot is estimated to be only a few thousand birds, according to the Department of Environment website.