Kent A. Vliet - Alligators: The Illustrated Guide to Their Biology, Behavior, and Conservation

Alligators

Kent A. Vliet

PHOTOGRAPHS BY

Wayne Lynch

The Illustrated Guide to Their Biology, Behavior, and Conservation

2020 Johns Hopkins University Press

All rights reserved. Published 2020

Printed in China on acid-free paper

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Vliet, Kent A., 1956 author. | Lynch, Wayne, photographer.

Title: Alligators : the illustrated guide to their biology, behavior, and conservation / Kent A. Vliet ; photographs by Wayne Lynch.

Description: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019013418 | ISBN 9781421433370 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 1421433370 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781421433387 (electronic) | ISBN 1421433389 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Alligators. | AlligatorsBehavior. | AlligatorsConservation.

Classification: LCC QL666.C925 V55 2020 | DDC 597.98/4dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019013418

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

All photographs were taken by Wayne Lynch except for those listed on the last printed page of the book.

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Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post-consumer waste, whenever possible.

Alligators

It was my first true day as an alligator biologist. The weather was mild, typical of a November morning in Florida. I was a new graduate student at the University of Florida, and the core of my research was centered on studying courtship behavior of Alligator mississipiensis, the American alligator. My research site was not what I had envisioned in exotic youthful dreams. It was a tourist destination, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, which has been in existence since 1893. When I arrived in 1980, it was a popular spot, and remains so to this day. Few who pass through St. Augustine can resist the opportunity to witness up close the nearest thing America has to a dragon.

On that morning my task was to attach large, yellow, numbered tags to the tails of each of the 165 alligators in the lake. Adopted from livestock identification, the tags would allow me to easily identify each individual.

Like most young graduate students, and newly minted medical doctors for that matter, I was not quite experienced enough for the task at hand. The largest alligator Id handled up to that point was just under 4 feet (1.2 meters) long from snout to the tip of the tail. The beasts before me now ranged from about 6 feet to just over 10 (23.2 m). The largest weighed in excess of 400 pounds (180 kilograms). As reckless and carefree as youth makes most of us, they still caught my attention.

I had come prepared with very little in the way of toolsI had the tags and the tag applicator, and that was it. Luckily, I was not alone. My new best friend, whom I gladly called my mentor, was Tim Williams, a manager at the Alligator Farm. He took one look at me, and Im sure he smiled inside at the thought of turning this greenhorn into a gator wrangler. But he was too nice to ridicule me, and I did my best to feign bravery. Perhaps in the back of his mind he thought his mission was to not let me get mangled or killedand take him down with me.

Group of adult American alligators lounging on a basking beach at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park.

On that first day we caught, restrained, measured, and determined the sex of thirty-one alligators. Each was fitted with a uniquely numbered tag that could be read at a distance. The tags were clipped to one of the sawtooth-like crest scales about halfway down the tail. For added security, we also put a small numbered metal tag through the webbing on each of the hind feet, just in case the tail tag was lost.

This was down-and-dirty field biology at its core. It might seem a bit rough, but most field biology is. We did try to work as quickly and humanely as possible. Even as a young graduate student in 1980, I was aware that being captured and having a tag attached was probably pretty unpleasant for an alligator. My own mixture of fear and inexperience made that secondary, but sympathy was in the mix of my emotions. So I handled it then as Ive handled it since: be quick, be respectful, and avoid mistakes. As for the alligators, after release they looked a bit ticked-off but soon appeared oblivious to what had happened. The scene was reminiscent of children getting vaccination shots.

The day started easily enough. The lake had an elevated walkway running down the length of it. From that safe and lofty perch, we could drop a rope lasso over the heads of alligators below. Once that was accomplished, wed pull the alligators to the shoreline and get to work. This went well enough for the first ten alligators. The St. Augustine Alligator Farm boardwalk was typically filled with tourists, and the alligators learned to ignore humans, so they ignored us. At least, they ignored us for a while. But the alligators, or gators as they are often called, began to avoid us. They recognized the pattern: Theyre not here to feed us or to gawk. Theyre dragging us up on shore and doing something weird to us!

When Tim or I approached, the alligators decidedly moved away. We had to throw the rope in an attempt to lasso a gator, which was remarkably harder than our previous method of more or less dropping it on them. This took a bit of practice, but I shocked myself by how quickly I mastered the skill. Soon we were back to catching and tagging alligators.

Very little of an alligators body is generally visible when in water, making it difficult to assess just how big it may be.

By early afternoon, our lassoing luck had run out. When the rope would land just right, the alligators would immediately freeze. They would come to a dead stop in the water. After a few seconds, they would slowly back up. The drag of the rope in the water would pull it off their head. They had watched our chess game and seen their neighbors fooled by two techniques, so they developed a new counterstrategy. I began the day looking at these lazy animals who were lounging around, soaking up rays, totally oblivious to us. I was struck by how passive the gators were to the goings-on of the early morning. It was almost too easylike shooting fish in a barrel. Then they began to move away. It was pretty basic stuff. But this new move was sophisticated, and it marked the first time I began to see alligators as having their own kind of intelligence. They were able to assess the situation, see a problem, and come up with a solution.