It may have gotten lost in the changing tide. It may have been chasing fish. One thing is clear, the alligator spotted in the waves at South Padre Island was showing unusual behavior.

Now the alligator seen out of its element has a new home. The 7.5 foot male was relocated Thursday by a group of rescuers and a game warden after it was first spotted Tuesday several miles north of the end of the road.

Since that sighting, it was spotted at least once more, seen in a nighttime Facebook post.

Alejandra Brown first recorded it Tuesday while on a fishing trip. By the weekend, that post was shared 470 times.

“It almost looked like a log,” Brown said. “And then we saw that it was a gator. We saw the tail moving, and we saw it walking, and we saw the waves crashing over him."

Jake Reinbolt, a herpetologist at the South Padre Island Birding, Nature and Alligator Sanctuary, was one of several who safely and humanely recovered the gator.

"Those open water catches are usually pretty tricky, and generally you only have one shot at it,” Reinbolt said. “Because if that animal decides he doesn't want to be caught, and he decides to run, you're in trouble. When we got there, that animal was so exhausted from fighting the surf and waves for so long, we were able to just sneak up behind him."

The gator was released in the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge - an area where gators are plenty, and people are few.

"We do see them get into the salt water, they spend time there,” Reinbolt said. “They'll hunt there, they'll do their thing, but they're always going to look for a freshwater source to get back to."

 “Most of the time they're just going to try to get away," Reinbolt said.  They're not monsters, they're not out to get you by any means - but don't underestimate how powerful they are."