New York City park staff have stumbled across a sickly alligator in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, with rangers capturing the lost reptile and taking it to the Bronx Zoo for care.

Park maintenance staff found the alligator, since nicknamed Godzilla, in Prospect Park Lake on Sunday morning (local time), in the heart of the concrete jungle.

They noted that it appeared lethargic and in a state of cold shock.

Alligators are native to the south-eastern US and typically live in tropical climates. This one was about 1.2 metres long.

“We’re grateful to our Parks Enforcement Patrol and Urban Park Rangers who snapped into action to capture and transport the alligator,” a spokesperson for NYC Parks said in a statement.

Park workers said they believed Godzilla had likely been dumped as an unwanted pet.

No one was harmed in capturing the animal and taking it to the zoo, the department said.

Alligator attacks are extremely rare in the US, even in the states where they usually reside.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission counted that there were only 442 unprovoked bite incidents in the state from 1948 to 2021.

The New York City Parks department issued a public warning against releasing non-native animals into the city’s environment, which is illegal.

New York City Urban Park Rangers respond to about 500 calls regarding animals in poor condition each year.

-with AAP