See Ya Later Alligator

On March 13^th, our last class before spring break, we were surprised with an unexpected adventure…Alligator Catching. Of course, we said yes because that is probably one of the most awesome things that a person could do in their life, even though I had no clue what it meant. Apparently, like with all the other animal at the Nature Center, the staff surveys the number of alligators, how many eggs they lay, what eggs survive, and what gators make it to maturity. To track the mature gators, the staff at the Nature Center with do spotlight surveys, which basically means shining a light in the dark and counting the number of eyes you see to get an estimate of how many gators there are. The staff will also try catching the gators every year to tag them if they are not already tagged and take data on the gator. They gather data on different measurements of length, girth, and the most difficult one to measure, weight. This was the process we were able to watch and help with during our class, and it was incredible.

            When we arrived at the site, I was expecting to see gators galore, however gators do not generally love the attention we were wanting to give them. We then spotted a couple of brown bumpy snouts that looked more like driftwood that some pieces of wood I have seen. We were also able to see a massive alligator sunbathing on the shore. Eventually the crew picked out a gator they were going to try to catch, and it was big.

To break down how to catch a gator:

1.     You take one massive fishing rod to initially hook the gator.

2.     The gator will be angry because it does not want to come to shore and sink to the bottom of the pond, like a toddle rag-dolling during a tantrum.

3.     Take another massive fishing rod and double hook the gator.

4.     Fight with the gator and white knuckle it to shore.

5.     When it is close enough to shore, wrap a thing that looks like a dog catcher pole around its snout and use a rope and pull it to land.

6.   One person will need to sit on the gator's shoulders while the other sits on its tail.

7.     Someone will then tape its jaws close and cover the gator’s eyes so it will calm down.

The gator we caught was a male, just under 11 feet and 400 pounds. He was surprisingly docile through most of the process, which meant we were able to help with measuring and moving the gator. Never in my life did I think I would be able to get this up close to an alligator, let alone be able to sit on one. This probably is one of the coolest things I will ever do in my entire life!