Burlington ? Wildlife officials are trying to find out how a dead alligator wound up in a lake in east-central Kansas.

A fisherman found the 64-inch-long alligator Wednesday in Coffey County Lake near Burlington. The lake supplies water for the nearby Wolf Creek Nuclear plant.

State wildlife officials say they have no idea how long the reptile had been there.

Invasive species coordinator Jason Goeckler says it’s illegal to release an exotic species into the wild in Kansas.

Goeckler says he hasn’t heard any reports of alligators in Kansas for several years. The farthest north the animals typically are found is southern Arkansas or extreme southeast Oklahoma.