And then there was one: Alligator caught in Forest Acres area lake, another still loose

And then there was one.

Two alligators – nicknamed “Alli” and “Gator” – were spotted swimming in recent weeks in the Lake Katherine neighborhood.

But late Monday afternoon, lake neighbor Julie Latham reported by email that one, Alli, had been caught.

That leaves Gator, who is about 8 feet long, still out in the Forest Acres area lake.

No details about the capture were available, though a “depredation permit” had been issued recently by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources to the Lake Katherine homeowners association to “kill the alligators and remove them from the lake,” Willie Simmons, a DNR wildlife coordinator, said last week.

The creatures were discovered about two weeks ago by 13-year-old Davis Farnsworth of Charlotte. He was visiting his Columbia grandparents who live near the lake.

“I was fishing right after a storm. It was about 4 p.m. I was fishing for bass. I looked out in the water and saw something and thought it was a log, but I hadn’t seen a log there before the storm.

“I cast my line right over the top of the log to see if it might be something else. It snapped back at my line and I said, ‘Oh, that’s definitely a gator.’ ”

No one knows where the alligators came from, though Latham said some in the neighborhood speculated Congaree National Park.

Contributing: Columnist Salley McInerney

This story was originally published June 29, 2015 at 6:39 PM.