A crocodile has neighbors in a Florida beach community on edge.

"Something weird must be going on," Gay Steffen, who lives in a townhouse next to Desoto Park in Satellite Beach, told weather.com Saturday.

T​he Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently put up several signs warning of crocodiles along a canal that runs between the park and Steffen's home.

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O​ne person reportedly saw a crocodile swimming away with a small dog in its mouth in another neighborhood that the canal connects to. A boater also said he saw it, according to Florida Today.

Steffen said she's keeping an even closer eye than normal on her toy poodle, Tommy. She and two of her neighbors interviewed Sunday hadn't laid eyes on the croc. One, Jacob Cohen, surmised it might be in search of food. Another said she was no longer letting her three children play in the backyard.

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T​here have been at least three other reports of crocodile sightings in nearby Melbourne Beach since December. Police there confirmed that the FWC was tracking an 8-foot long crocodile in May.

Melbourne Beach and Satellite Beach are two of several communities along a narrow, 40-mile-long barrier island bordered on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and on the west by the Indian River Lagoon. The lagoon itself stretches for 156 miles along Florida's East Coast from Volusia County on its north end to Palm beach on its south end.

The lagoon is known for abundant wildlife - but not crocodiles. The area is considered the northernmost range of the American crocodile, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says warmer temperatures and rising sea levels brought on by climate change are pushing crocs further north from their usual habitats in South Florida.

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The Indian River Lagoon is famous for manatees. It's made news in recent years for a mass die-off of the beloved marine mammals, blamed on starvation due to the decline of local seagrasses.

And on chilly winter days, the small, warm canal behind Steffen's house is often packed with them.

"​That's what worries me," she said. "Will they get it before the manatees come back."

Weather.com reporter J​an Childs writes about science, the environment, space, climate change and everything in between.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.