re: alligators have expanded their habitat into TN

quote:

---

They're like fricking roaches and rats. If you see one around an area, there's probably either more there, or soon will be.

---

One advantage, and they have a lot of disadvantages, that reptiles have is that if the conditions are right you can have a large population living in fairly small area.

With our warm blood and rapid metabolism mammals and birds need to eat all the time. A reptile can eat a few times a month and be as healthy as can be. Which means a lot of gators can live off the same food supply.

I'm all in favor of gators thriving in our wetlands. Not so much of them thriving in our backyards and swimming pools.

quote:

---

It's damn near impossible to keep'em out. Where I live, you never know where you'll run into one...in the street in my neighborhood, crossing the busy highway in front of the neighborhood. In all the golf course lakes next to my neighborhood. They'll travel a long way over land to get to a new water hole.

---

Like I said, I am in favor of them, but it is time to take a, shall we say, more proactive stance on their management.

No. I don't want to drive them to the brink of extinction again but we need to keep alligator numbers in a healthy balance with where they live.

Which means harvesting them on a regular basis. Has a big bull gator been spotted on the golf course? Shoot him and take his skin and meat. Both of which have markets.

If we don't go overboard the gators will be perfectly fine. Hell, we will be encouraging genetic diversity because hunters will take the biggest gators they can get which will allow smaller gators to get their chance.