TYLER MORNING TELEGRAPH (Texas) 15 July 07 Spring Alligator Season Wraps Up (Steve Knight)
The final paperwork is still being wrapped up, but it looks like Texas' first spring alligator season had some bite.
"I think we had 141 alligators (taken), but all of the reports may not be in yet," said Jim Sutherlin, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's alligator program leader from Port Arthur. "We had a real rush the next to the last week of the season with something like five or six, and the last week we had something like 21."
The three-month season that closed June 30 gave Texas hunters a chance to take an alligator outside 22 coastal counties that are considered the reptile's traditional Texas habitat. In those counties hunting is limited to a highly regulated fall season.
During the spring season hunters could take one alligator hunting from private land. During the season alligators were taken from 26 counties ranging from Bowie County on the Red River to Kleberg County in South Texas, and if nothing else highlighted how scattered alligators are around the state.
"My expectations were if they took 150 I would be surprised and if they took 300 I wouldn't be surprised," Sutherlin said.
With the season ended, Sutherlin said he has no read on what to expect going forward into next spring.
"Some wanted to do it, and once they have taken one will they do it again?" he said. "I think we have opened the door to opportunity and closed the door on some possible activity that was taking place anyway."
Sutherlin speculates that outside the 22 core counties landowners, either with a permit or without have taken alligators that might have threatened livestock. Through the spring season they are able to provide protection for their livestock, but taken by hunters the alligators are not wasted.
Another goal of the season was to remove alligators that have become nuisance animals because of development into their habitat or their movement into more urban areas.
"A lot of it is about reducing nuisance conflict. I don't know if we accomplished much. I don't know if we would have gotten a call on those animals anyway or not," Sutherlin said.
An unexpected result of the season seems to be public awareness about alligators existing around the state.
"More people are aware now. We have alligators all over Texas. Anywhere we have a little bit of water we can depend on," Sutherlin noted.
The biologist backs the season saying that while providing hunter opportunity; it does not threaten the resource in the state.
"We have opportunity to take advantage of a resource that is untapped. It is a dynamic renewable resource that hasn't been taken advantage of," he said. Sutherlin added that if the harvest rate were to climb dramatically in the future, the department would have to reconsider the season.
The alligators taken this season ranged in season from just a few feet to more than 13 feet in length.
At this point there will be no changes when the season reopens next April.
Spring Alligator Season Wraps Up