John Dryden has never before gotten a heads-up from a neighbour like this one.

“Hey, did you know there is a gator on the other side of the fence?”

Dryden grabbed his camera (with his highest zoom lens) and headed over to see a metre-long American alligator calmly sunning itself in the corner of a Brampton backyard on Sunday afternoon as the shocked homeowners called police.

“It’s surreal,” said Anita, the owner of the Elliott St. home who declined to give her last name.

It was more shocking than scary to her kids, in their late teens, who discovered the uninvited visitor, she said. “But being a homeowner and a parent, my concern is for any young kids . . . or any pets in the neighbourhood.”

Anita said the alligator was likely someone’s pet. Dryden agrees.

“Maybe it got too big to feed and they let it go,” he said.

Animal control officers used a catch pole noose to capture the reptile, a device normally used to control aggressive dogs.

It’s the first alligator-on-the-loose call Brampton Animal Services officers have ever dealt with.

Where the gator came from and how it got into the Elliott St. backyard is a mystery, but it has been given a one-way ticket out of the city.

On Tuesday, the juvenile alligator reached its new home at the Indian River Reptile Zoo east of Peterborough, where it has been deemed initially healthy but will be quarantined for about six months.

So far no clues about its origin have been revealed, said Kyle O’Grady, assistant curator at the zoo, the only Canadian accredited reptile facility, which also trains officers to handle alligators and other dangerous reptiles.

Keeping alligators (and indeed all members of the crocodilian family) is illegal under Brampton’s exotic pets bylaw.

“But more people keep these animals at home than you think,” said O’Grady. “The best way to put it . . . is this is the first alligator call of the summer.”

Over the last four or so years, the zoo has responded to seven calls about loose gators across the province. Five turned out to be alligators or caimans (their smaller South American relative). Two calls were hoaxes.

The reptiles are cute as babies, but can get too big too quick for their owners. American alligators grow to about four metres on average. They also need a lot of care, space, heat and food — and can be dangerous.

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“These are predators. They’ve been around for millions of years,” O’Grady said. “They won’t change because they’re a pet.”

With files from Pam Douglas, Torstar News Service

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