The body of a 13-foot alligator has washed up on a Southeast Texas beach and experts are trying to determine if recent flooding contributed to the death.
Houston NBC affiliate KPRC-TV reports some visitors to Jamaica Beach, near Galveston, posed for photos with the alligator found Sunday.
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department spokesman Steve Lightfoot said Tuesday that game wardens think the animal was sick or old and probably drowned.
Parts of Texas were inundated by rain and flooding from late May to early June.
Lightfoot says alligators are freshwater creatures but at times go into salt water - like the Gulf of Mexico off Galveston - to cleanse their hides.
Lightfoot says sometimes when floodwaters recede the alligators get disoriented and become trapped in open areas.
Game wardens removed the carcass.
