Strange reptile slithers through Columbia neighborhood. How did it get there?

An exotic lizard with a fearsome sneer was discovered wandering through a Columbia neighborhood this week, startling neighbors and sparking questions about where the strange creature came from.

Patrick Saucier ran across the foot-long reptile while walking his dog along Tugaloo Avenue in the Hollywood Rose Hill community. A neighbor who spotted the lizard was trying to figure out what to make of it when Saucier strolled by.

“It was an unusual finding, that’s for sure,’’ Saucier said, explaining that he scooped the lizard into a box in hopes of finding someone to take the animal. The lizard appeared to be a pet, he said.

So what was it?

The creature looks like a bearded dragon, an animal native to the rural Australian desert that is often sold at traveling reptile shows, said Will Dillman, a biologist with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources who examined a photograph of the lizard.

Bearded dragons aren’t particularly dangerous, Dillman said, but they can give that appearance. If they are threatened, a bearded dragon will hiss and puff out a scaly beard on the side of its head to look bigger, according to National Geographic.

Dillman said it’s unlikely that bearded dragons would establish themselves in the countryside of South Carolina, as other species like the destructive and much larger tegu lizard, appear to have done. It’s generally too chilly in the winter for bearded dragons, he said.

Still, Dillman said it’s possible the animals could survive in cities because there are buildings to hide beneath during the winter. Bearded dragons could carry diseases that could spread to other animals, he said.

That’ s why Dillman said people should not release exotic animals like the bearded dragon, either in the country or in cities like Columbia, the state capitol with more than 130,000 residents. The neighborhood where the bearded dragon was found is near the University of South Carolina campus.

“If people are letting things go, that is not ideal,’’ Dillman said.

Saucier, a sociology instructor at the University of South Carolina, said he never found anyone who claimed to own the bearded dragon, but the animal’s fate may have been resolved.

A Columbia-area high school teacher offered to take the scaly reptile in hopes of using it for educational purposes, Saucier said. The teacher, who asked The State not to be identified, said he picked up the dragon Tuesday night, put it in a cat carrier and took it to his house.

Saucier said he wanted to help the lizard, but was glad someone more knowledgeable about bearded dragons was interested in the creature.

“It’s an exotic animal,’’ he said. “I just didn’t know how to take care of it.’’