OTUS THE HEAD CAT : Hunt gators now, or they’ll see you later
Posted on Saturday, April 28, 2007
Dear Otus, I read in the paper that the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission was setting up the state’s first alligator hunting season. I had heard that alligators are on the rise, but wonder if it’s really necessary to hunt them. When I was a kid, the folks would take me to the Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo in Hot Springs. I recall I was upset when they wouldn’t let us pet the alligators. Then the llama spit in my face. And the mummified merman creeped me out. I still think alligators are sort of cute, and I’m sorry to see they’re going to be killed for sport. — Bill Ledoux,
Heber Springs Dear Bill,
It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you and have the opportunity to admonish you to correct the error of your thinking.
Owner, as well, has fond memories of going to the Alligator Farm as a youth. He went several times, in fact, and never once saw the critters so much as twitch a paw. He swears they were stuffed, but we know differently.
Alligator hunting was banned in Arkansas in 1954 in the days when they were considered endangered. The 1960 reptile census estimated only 200 alligators were spread across the bayous and swamps in deep southern Arkansas. Sightings were increasingly rare.
In the almost 50 years since, alligators have been quietly and efficiently repopulating their prehistoric haunts and extending their territory ever northward into waters once considered too cold to support them.
Today, there are an estimated 950, 000 alligators in Arkansas, ranging from the brackish coves of Lake Jack Lee in Ashley County to Harris Brake Wildlife Management Area; from Millwood Lake near Texarkana to the St. Francis River drainage canals northeast of Forrest City.
Along with this population explosion have come increased contact with humans and the mysterious disappearances of hunting dogs, household pets and small farm animals.
Urban gators ? The Game and Fish Commission is looking for a 6-foot alligator that is thought to be lurking in Sherwood’s Lake Cherrywood.
There was also an unconfirmed sighting of a small alligator in North Little Rock’s Lake No. 2 below the Old Mill. The creature has eluded wildlife officers, who suspect the sighting was false. However, how do you explain the disappearance of the lake’s ducks and geese ?
And now, the gators are getting attitude and increasingly encroaching on urban settings.
Gators have been spotted in Little Rock’s Fourche Creek near the airport.
A 9-foot female alligator charged from White Oak Bayou two weekends ago and attacked a golf cart at North Little Rock’s Burns Park. It was thought she was protecting her nest. The nest, which contained 83 golf balls and one broken 3-wood, was destroyed and the gator relocated.
Students at Arkansas Baptist High School in western Little Rock’s The Ranch subdivision were horrified earlier this month when a soccer ball kicked over the back fence was swallowed whole by a gator that disappeared into the murky water of the Little Maumelle River.
In addition, 37 pet cats have disappeared from the subdivision since September. Coincidence ? I think not.
It’s high time Arkansas woke up to the cold, reptilian reality.
An estimated 35, 000 alligators are harvested during Louisiana’s annual 30-day hunt. All officials are proposing for Arkansas are two weekends in September. For starters.
Most male alligators in Arkansas average 8 or 9 feet long at maturity, but the big boys can reach 1, 000 pounds and stretch 14 feet. Do you want something like that headed for your bass boat ?
The Game and Fish Commission plans to make it a challenge, however. Only 400 permits will be issued initially, with a two-gator limit per permit. In addition, no firearms will be allowed in the hunt. Gator hunters must either use a spear with B&M 11 PK Flounder gig (acetylene welded, hand-forged spring steel ), or a bow with Muzzy Gator-Getter arrows with 600-pound test Brownell Gator Cord. If you want to apply for a permit (they’ll go lottery-style ), go to the commission’s Web site at www. agfc. com and click on the “Current News” link. Until next time, Kalaka reminds you to keep your hands inside the boat. Disclaimer: Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat’s award-winning column of
humorous fabrication appears every Saturday. E-mail: mstorey@arkansasonline. com
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