THE TIMES (Shreveport Louisiana) 28 July 07 Gator gets new home at State Fair (Jimmy Watson)
As alligator lives go, this one will spend its life like Riley.
A nearly 4-foot gator, pulled from a creek in north Bossier City near the Lakewood and Cross Creek subdivisions this week by gator hunter David Wilson, won't have to spend its life wallowing in murky backwater or searching daily for another meal.
Instead, the young gator will spend its remaining days in the friendly confines of a tank at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport.
"The gator will live like it's got a gold spoon in its mouth," Wilson said. "It'll get fed chicken parts, and it'll never go without water. Hopefully, it'll live out a nice life there."
Not all gators get the same lucky break from Wilson, who has a hunting license through Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries to handle nuisance gators but is not employed by the departmemt. Already in 2007, Wilson has harvested 11 alligators while depositing six in witness protection.
Gators continue to be a nuisance in north Bossier City as home construction continues to expand, Wildlife and Fisheries biologist Steve Hebert said.
"The gators are getting displaced, and they have nowhere to go. Until the population adjusts, we will continue to have problems.
"Typically, gators don't want to have anything to do with people or their pets. They just want to get away."
Tuesday's 3-foot, 11˝-inch alligator was nabbed on a No. 10 ault hook attached to a 30-foot line measuring an eighth of an inch thick. The hook was baited with a chicken wing by residents living in a nearby home.
"It came up pretty easy when I pulled on the line because the gators don't want to hurt themselves," Wilson said. "I had a noose-hook ready but didn't need it."
The gator was taken to the State Fair Grounds, where it was put in an adjoining tank near an elderly alligator that is blind in one eye and has a broken jaw. The exhibit also has two Louisiana snapping turtles captured recently by Wilson and turned over to State Fair personnel.
"They'll be well taken care of, although no one sees them except during the two months of the fair," Wilson said. "They'll be fed well and even have a place to hibernate during the winter."
Wilson relocated Tuesday's gator despite getting no recompense for the work. He works the midnight shift at General Motors and doesn't get paid for gator work unless he sells the hide and meat.
"He could have sold it on the legal market. But, in this case, he preferred to turn it over to the State Fair, which has an exhibitor's license through us," Hebert said. "As long as nuisance gators are treated in a humane way, we're happy with the result."
Gator gets new home at State Fair