Page 164 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2020

SPORTS & OUTDOORS
Conservation Efforts Bring Back Ancient Giant Reptiles
story by John N. Felsher
photos courtesy of Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks
About 500 years ago, Spanish explorers rst began to trek across what became the Gulf Coast states. On their explorations, they discovered
“dragons” and called the giant toothy reptiles “El Lagarto,” or “the Lizard.” Over the centuries, English-speaking people turned the Spanish phrase into “alligator.”
Living more than 50 years, alligators can grow longer than 16 feet and can weigh more than 1,000 pounds. Millions of alligators once populated the rivers, swamps, lakes and marshes of the Gulf Coast. For centuries, people feared these powerful animals and tried to eradicate them. By the mid-20th century, they nearly succeeded.
Seeing populations decline drastically, states began passing laws protecting the giant reptiles who outlived their dinosaur cousins by millions of years. In 1967, the federal government put alligators under full protection by adding them to the Endangered Species List.
“To restore the Mississippi alligator population after they were placed on the Endangered Species List, the state began an alligator restoration project,” detailed Ricky Flynt, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Alligator Program Coordinator. “From 1970-1978, approximately 4,000 alligators were captured at the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge
in Louisiana and transported to Mississippi to be released in suitable habitats across the state.”
Once fully protected, alligators made a remarkable comeback and soon began to repopulate the coastal wetlands, lakes and rivers. Alligators became so numerous that they became pests in many places. Today, the ancient reptiles thrive across most of Mississippi particularly in the southern half of the state.
“Population estimates are very di cult to determine, but we believe there are between 38,000 to 40,000 adult alligators statewide,” Flynt said. “The traditional range of alligators is from Highway 82 south. However, alligators have been recorded in all 82 counties in Mississippi.”
In 1987, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed alligators from the Endangered Species List and allowed states to hold strictly-managed hunts to remove surplus animals, thus keeping the population stable. In 2005, Mississippi held its rst renewed very restricted alligator hunting season on parts of the Pearl and Pascagoula river systems. That tradition continues this year as a new alligator season runs from noon on August 28 through noon on September
164 | August 2020
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