More than 400 applicants vie for
20 permits in lottery
(HD Editor I think the third to
last paragraph in the actual article is wrong. Why alligators where delisted to
threatened from endangered)
By Maya Sweedler-Wall Street
Journal - Aug. 10, 2018
A handful of hunters will soon be
permitted to bag an animal rarely hunted in North Carolina: an American
alligator.
The state’s Wildlife Resources
Commission will allow alligator hunting in Hyde County
beginning Sept. 1, marking the first sanctioned hunt in the state in more than
40 years. So far, demand is high, with more than 400 people applying for 20
permits, said Alicia Davis, a conservation biologist at the commission.
The monthlong controlled hunt is
intended to decrease the alligator population and will target three regions in
the county where there have been “frequent alligator conflicts,” according to
the county.
Assistant County Manager Kris
Noble said the area’s alligator problem has gotten so bad in the past five
years that residents no longer swim in local ponds. Ms. Noble stopped taking
her Labrador retrievers along on fishing trips to the Inner Banks.
Hyde County, in North Carolina’s
coastal plain, is the state’s second largest by total area but the second-least
populous. With zero municipalities and fewer than 6,000 residents, as of the
last national census in 2010, it has fallen to the county to manage the
alligator population.
“A lot of municipalities must
deal with downtown traffic and parking, but we deal with resource management
and animal control,” Ms. Noble said. “It is pretty obvious to anyone that lives
and works here that the alligator...interactions are on the rise.”
The state hasn’t undertaken a
large-scale study of its alligator population since the 1970s, so it can’t
prove more gator-related complaints actually means there are more alligators,
Ms. Davis said.
“We’ve been seeing an increase in
the number of calls we get from the public. At least some of that is attributed
to development and human population growth,” said Ms. Davis, adding that no
people have reported injuries from alligators this summer.
Some said the hunt, frequently
conducted from a boat, could be challenging. Alligators have found their way
into the county’s drainage pumps, an important part of flood
prevention. They also reside in
canals, many of which are as narrow as 6 or 8 feet, said resident Chase Luker,
who works at outdoor-adventure company Dare to Hyde.
Mr. Luker, who didn’t apply for a
permit, said the company leads hunting trips for waterfowl, turkey and the
occasional black bear—but it is not equipped to lead alligator-hunting
excursions. He said many county residents also balked at the permit fee. If
selected in the lottery, in-state permit holders must pay $250 and out-of-state
permit holders, $500.
Hyde County, which lies to the
south of Alligator River, is one of only 10 in North Carolina that can, with
permission from the Wildlife Resources Commission, reduce its alligator
population via hunting. Hyde County was the only county to apply to the
commission this year, Ms. Davis said.
The U.S. Department of the
Interior has classified the American alligator as a threatened species since
1987 to help protect the similar-looking American crocodile, which is
endangered. Fewer than 10 states offer annual hunting seasons, and each closely
monitors the number of animals killed and the regions in which the hunts take
place.
Permit holders will be selected
for the North Carolina hunt via lottery, which closes on Aug. 10, and will be
allowed one kill.
SURPRISING SIGHTINGS
Stephen Dinkelacker, a biology
professor at Framingham State University, created the Coastal NC Alligator
Research program to study and track alligators in the state. In almost two
decades, he has found alligators in some unusual places.
The Outer Banks
Kitty Hawk, a town in the Outer
Banks located about 3 miles off the mainland, made headlines when residents
reported an alligator there in May.
The Coastal NC Alligator Research
team happened to be nearby, so they managed to tag the 9½-foot specimen and
release it. According to news reports, it was the first record of an alligator
on the island side of the Outer Banks.
“The idea that saltwater is a
barrier or impediment isn’t realistic. Alligators can swim,” Mr. Dinkelacker
said.
Dare County Bombing Range
The Dare County Bombing Range
serves as a practice facility for U.S. Navy and Air Force flight crews. But the
noisy airplanes didn’t seem to deter an alligator, Mr. Dinkelacker said. It
showed up near a pond in the bombing range just over a week ago.
The alligator, which was tagged,
was also seen in 2013 and 2014 in a wildlife refuge, and traveled between 11
and 16 miles to the bombing range, according to the research group.
Stand-alone Pond
In regions alligators frequent,
any waterway can host a specimen. But sometimes, Mr. Dinkelacker said, he finds
gators in ponds that aren’t connected to a canal or ditch: “You’re like, how
did you walk here?”
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