National Geographic: Realm of the Alligator (1987)

[bunniefuu]

This is a place of unseen danger

and subtle beauty.

It is a mysterious swamp called

"Okefenokee"...

the realm of the Alligator.

Okefenokee...

a forbidding place once

thought to harbor deadly diseases.

It sheltered fugitives

and inspired fear and superstition.

Today Okefenokee Swamp is a

well-know wildlife refuge.

But even for people like

biologist-photographer.

Dr. John Paling,

it is not entirely welcoming.

"Whenever I go back to Okefenokee now,

I've got mixed feelings about it".

From the air when you go across it,

it looks just so beautiful

and so serene and so natural

and so appealing.

And yet it can be a place

of such contrasts

that it seems almost as if man was never

intended to be there for long.

Okefenokee Swamp is a

A mosaic of islands, forest, marshes,

and open water.

It's famed for its alligators

and as the home of Pogo,

The comic-strip possum.

Although it overlaps

the Florida state line,

most of Okefenokee lies

in southeastern Georgia.

Okefenokee's population

of Seminole Indians

was driven out in the 1830s.

It was soon infiltrated

by white settlers called "swampers."

By the 1930s the swampers

were well established here,

Showing off alligator nests and eggs

for visiting photographers.

The swampers were a breed apart.

Many had few needs or

interests outside Okefenokee.

Those who knew them admired their

simplicity and self-reliance.

Soon after the turn of the century,

virgin stands of cypress brought

an invasion to the swamp.

This and earlier schemes

to build a ship canal

through the swamp and even to drain it

threatened to destroy Okefenokee.

But much of Okefenokee's prime timber

was cleared in less than 20 years.

Soon the swampers were alone again.

In 1937, Okefenokee was declared

a national wildlife refuge.

The human residents would

eventually leave.

One old-timer said,

we have the swamp and that's good.

But the swampers are all gone.

It's just a shame we can't have both.

More than fifty years

after they were abandoned,

relics of the old logging camps

still can be found.

Now deep in regrowing forest,

they're objects of curiosity

for biologists like

Kent Vliet and John Paling.

This is an old train.

Oh, this is?

The engine was up front...

and there would be water

in this old cylinder.

After working here for several seasons

Paling, born in England,

has become intimately familiar

with this Georgia swamp.

And there's something even more

dramatic over here.

Come and have a guess sat this.

What do you make of this?

That's some sort of a chassis.

Right.

Is that what they carried the logs on?

Nope. Try again.

Don't forget we're on

an island in the middle of Okefenokee,

so try again.

Some sort of swamp buggy

or something like that?

It's a car. They had three cars

on the island.

Really? That's a heavy...

Heavy duty, isn't it?

Heavy chassis...

But look how well the metal's

been preserved. Yeah.

And there's another thing

to pick out too.

You see why it's so good?

It's British

Right-hand drive.

It's Durant car that they brought over

on the trains for three people.

Is that right?

Yeah. There were three cars

that would chug up and down.

And this thing is preserved so well.

Many cars that are ten years old

don't have a chassis as good as that.

that's a very heavy chassis.

Right. I think it was just to

take people up and down.

There's a big turpentine still

at the end of the island too.

And there was a cinema,

there was a barber ship.

All gone now.

It's amazing.

Yep.

Trains.

When the logging company

finished up business,

they just tried to get all

the people off

when the National Parks Fish

and Wildlife took it in 1937.

Although parts of Okefenokee can be

traversed on foot,

it is better explored by boat.

The waters of Okefenokee look like

polished ebony,

dark but highly reflective.

It is a landscape of mirrors,

fascinating and surreal.

Kent Vliet is from

the University of Florida.

He's an expert on Okefenokee's most

famous resident, the alligator.

You know there's one right

in front of us, John?

Yep. I can see that one.

The ability to "call" alligators by

making certain curious sounds

is a valuable skill for

inquisitive biologists.

It's coming.

Whoa, hey.

Do they have binocular vision?

Can they see three dimensions?

Only a little small fraction of

their total visual field

just in front of their nose is binocular

Is he coming too close?

No, he's fine.

Wow.

Why do they have the yellow

ring around their eyes?

Is there a function that's

known for that?

A number of aquatic animals have

coloration around the eye like

that hippopotamuses do.

It might have something to do with

magnifying the light going into the eye

Sort of the reverse of a football player

putting black grease under the eye.

To make you see better in fact.

He's going to go down.

There he goes.

How long will they stay under water?

They can stay under a good long time.

When they're resting in the afternoon,

they go down for at least 15 minutes.

He's up again, look.

Yeah, there it is.

In the wintertime they may

stay down for days.

Nobody knows.

For days and days?

You mean they really...

You mean they hibernate?

Well, yeah, in the sense

it is a hibernation.

Their metabolism slows down so much

when they're that cold that they

just require almost no oxygen.

And they don't eat, obviously,

if they...

No, they don't eat for several months

during the winter.

I should think the average member

of the public that comes to Okefenokee

and sees an alligator thinks

they have really arrived in prehistory

Back in the Age of the Reptiles.

The study of alligator social behavior

has occupied Kent Vliet

for several years.

At his laboratory in Gainesville,

Florida,

he works with a wealth

of accumulated data.

We've learned that alligator

behavior is very, very complex.

It's much more complex and

much more sophisticated

than the behavior of other reptiles

that have been studied.

And so our dealings with alligator

behavior have been to try to

document the types of behaviors

they show and analyze these,

Not only in simple terms of

alligator behavior,

but as they might represent

the primitive beginnings

from which the more complex behaviors

of birds and mammals have evolved.

Most of Kent's observations

have been made at

the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.

Several hundred alligators are

on display here

for the enlightenment of tourists.

The farm affords easy access to

an otherwise elusive animal.

before that just to see

if the place would work out.

Are there many differences

between these gator-farm alligators

and the ones you get in the wild?

Well, c*ptive animals look a

lot different from wild animals.

The most noticeable difference...

Is that the head of a c*ptive animal

is much broader.

You don't have this beautifully

elongated snout.

That's because c*ptive animals spend

so much time on land basking,

and at least in old animals like these

the head weighs so much

that is just tends to flatten itself out

over the years.

It spreads out and becomes much broader

Is that what squeezes the teeth out too

Yeah...

because they're all showing

very obviously here?

They're very toothy animals

Also all the scales on their back

are worn down...

much more so than

a wild animal would be.

And that's just because these animals

live in very high densities on farms,

and they crawl over each other.

they just kind of buff each other

down all the time.

Since 1981 Kent Vliet has made

a detailed study

of alligator behavior

in the mating season

from April into June.

But Kent was not happy

with his original vantage point.

It was secure, but didn't provide

an accurate water-level view.

He decided to enter the lake

a procedure not without certain risks.

It is possible, when you're in the lake

that a big male will decide

he doesn't want you there

and actually come up and try

to get you out of his territory.

We've had very few problems

when I was swimming in the lake,

but there's always the potential for

an alligator getting hold of you

and doing some real damage.

Kent has found that alligators here

at the farm are fairly harmless

especially during mating season.

And, to increase his knowledge,

he puts this opinion to

a highly meaningful test.

We learned early on in our research

that we needed to get off

the boardwalks

and go down and look at alligators

at an alligator's eye level.

Alligators communicate to

each other visually by the way

they hold their bodies

out of the water.

And we got down into the water

to better understand

how alligators are talking

to each other in a visual sense.

Kent has taken a lot of kidding

about being up to his eyebrows

in alligators and "seeing eye to eye"

with his study subjects.

But he feels that because he can

understand an alligator's body language

he can ward off trouble before

it becomes a real thr*at.

I look for animals that are obviously

directing themselves toward me

as aggressive animals.

The way they tilt their head

and how high they hold their body

out of the water

are all indications

if they're being aggressive or not.

Not all the animals that come

towards me are aggressive.

Many are curious, but I still have

to treat them all about the same.

I can't let them get too close to me.

I carry a large, about five-foot-long

cypress pole with me,

And if an animal does get too close,

I just nudge it away and try to

keep it out of strike range.

The meaning, if any, of an alligator's

impressive yawn is not understood;

But other behavior like this

head-slapping display

has been deciphered.

It is an assertive gesture,

advertising an alligator's

social position.

In courtship season

the alligators stage

"bellowing choruses" almost daily.

Both sexes bellow, but they

make somewhat different sounds.

Just before a male bellows,

he produces subsonic signals that make

the water around him dance.

In the wild these signals may

dram females from a great distance.

Courtship is a quiet and oddly tender

process

that Kent has sometimes been able

to witness at close quarters.

Courtship is usually initiated by one

animal swimming slowly up to another.

And this is a very important stage

of courtship

because they have to communicate

to each animal that they

have non-aggressive intentions.

And secondly,

they go into a period of touching one

another along the face and neck.

And they really orient to each

other's head and neck.

in the third phase of courtship these

touching behaviors

become more exaggerated

and the animals start pressing

each other down under water.

And these are real tests of strength

between the two animals.

And these will be accentuated until one

animal is capable of pressing the other

under water

and ultimately circle around

and mount on that animal

and begin riding it around

and ultimately roll over to one side

and attempt to mate with that animal.

However they behave,

alligators have reproduced quite

successfully in Okefenokee.

Here, until the 1970s

they were badly hit by poachers.

Now, stiff laws protect a population

that has grown to about 12,000.

In summer, bubbling gases are like

the heartbeat of Okefenokee.

Beneath the dark waters

is a thick layer

of decomposing vegetation called peat.

The gases it creates sometimes

lift large patches

of peat to float on the surface.

Old-timers called this a 'blow-up'.

Over time, the floating mats of peat

are covered with vegetation.

Some sink again, but others become

floating islands

and eventually support bushes

and even trees.

Ultimately, the trees take root

and new land is created

small wooded islands

known locally as houses.

Okefenokee is an Indian word that means

'land of the trembling earth'

John Paling shows how fitting

the name is

when he lands on a

young floating island.

I actually enjoy walking on

"trembling earth", if I admit it.

It's one of these strange experiences

like walking on a bowl of jelly.

The waters of Okefenokee

are highly acid,

about as acidic as strong tea

and much the same color.

Conditions favor the growth

of insect-eating plants

that are found here in great variety.

This pitcher plant lures insects to

its hollow tubular leaf with nectar.

Once inside, few insects escape.

They're fooled by light

from the translucent windows

that line the back of the tube.

They exhaust themselves trying

to get out.

Eventually the insects fall

to the bottom of the tube.

There they are dissolved by acid

secretions and the plant absorbs them.

Another deadly attraction is the sundew

Its leaves are adorned

with brightly colored st*lks

tipped with shiny droplets

apparently a sweet meal

for passing insects.

But hungry insects soon

become entangled.

Escape is impossible when the plant

finally closes to digest its victim.

Along the edges of islands

and in shallow marshes

insects are snared

in such deadly traps.

When it's all over,

there will be nothing left of them

except their indigestible husks.

As night falls Okefenokee's gloom

and its grandeur deepen.

One hundred million years ago

the alligator's ancestors thrived

in prehistoric swamps.

As far as we know, they looked much

as they do today.

The eyes of the alligator

are highly reflective.

They shine with an eerie glow

in the night.

John Paling and Kent Vliet conduct

a nighttime search for baby alligators

Disturbing alligators here in

the refuge is strictly outlawed.

Even scientists like Vliet need

special permission just to touch one.

Let's cut off the engine for a minute

and get some peace. Okay.

Wow! That makes a difference,

doesn't it?

Let's pole from here.

It's beautiful in here.

Nice and quiet without that outboard.

Sure thing.

Do you see any gators yet, or not?

I haven't seen any

in this small stretch here.

I'll just flash the light around there

Is that one over there?

Yeah. That's one back

in the water lilies.

Let's try and get a bit closer to it,

can we?

I'll pole some more if you'll keep

paddling on that side.

Unlike the closely related crocodile,

alligators rarely att*ck man.

There are only about a half dozen

fatalities on record,

and there has never been a serious

incident in the Okefenokee Refuge.

Even so, there's a certain tension

whenever they're about.

Do you see one?

I'll keep going. Say when.

Okay, Just a little closer.

You got one?

The captured baby gives

a continuous cry of alarm.

John and Kent work quickly.

They want to minimize stress

on the baby

and avoid trouble with its mother

who might be nearby.

Forty-two-and-a-half centimeters.

Forty-two?

Uh huh. Forty-two. Good.

What's it reading?

It's just at 200 grams.

Watch it, watch it, watch it, watch it

My god! She's really cruising.

Is it the call of the baby?

Yeah. The baby's just

continually calling.

Well, hang on. Her jaws are open a bit

Her teeth are showing.

Kent, are you sure it's okay?

I don't think it's a good idea

to stay here.

Do you want to put the baby back,

or what?

Probably what I should do is just tap her

on the nose and see if it scares her.

They are often a little more brave

at night than they are in the daytime.

Watch! She's coming, Kent.

Boy, she really concentrates on that...

She just localizes right

on the distress call.

I think I had better push her off.

Are you sure?

She's a little too close.

This is not safe.

She's not safe?

No.

How about just putting the baby back?

Don't you think that's the best idea?

Yeah. We're definitely

at a disadvantage.

So Kent builds a record of

alligator growth in different areas.

Females grow to an average

of seven to eight feet,

While males may be up to 14 feet

and weigh 850 pounds.

Not all of Okefenokee's wonders

are found in the marshes.

John Paling explores a pine forest in

search of the red-cockaded woodpecker.

The birds are endangered

and difficult to find.

They live in groups of three or more,

and each of these so-called "clans"

requires about 200 acres of home range

This small woodpecker,

only seven inches in length,

has become famous for

its finicky habits.

It will only make holes

in old pine trees

that are usually infected by

a certain disease red heart fungus.

The fungus softens the tree's

inner core,

making the woodpecker's work easy.

When a clan of woodpeckers finds trees

that suit them exactly,

They may remain here for life.

The woodpecker's keep busy, however,

carrying out a fascinating scheme

for survival.

They constantly make fresh holes

in the trees,

causing them to exude a

thick coating of resin.

It's a sharp and smelly substance,

the main ingredient of turpentine.

The woodpecker's nest hole

is surrounded be resin.

And it's always located

on the western side of the trunk

where the heat of the sun will

help keep the resin moist and fresh.

The reason for all this only

becomes clear

with the appearance of a predator

like this corn snake.

Sometimes this snake can be

an amazing tree climber.

It can climb straight up and reach

bird nests 30 feet above the ground.

Eggs or baby birds

inside the woodpecker's nest

are seemingly easy prey.

But now the resin comes into play.

To the snake it's a powerful irritant.

Frequently is stops the snake entirely

Even if the snake persists,

it still tries to avoid contact

with the resin.

Often the snake ends up retreating

the hard way.

Such moments of thr*at and drama

frequently interrupt the tranquility

of Okefenokee.

The predator in one situation can

become prey in the next.

A baby alligator in pursuit

of a diving katydid.

Hiding underwater, the katydid

is safe temporarily.

But after two minutes or so,

it must come up for air.

It's midsummer.

John Paling and Kent Vliet

search for alligator nests.

At this time of year dozens of nests

are concealed in the swamp.

The best way to find one is

to look for the trail

the female alligator has made

when coming and going from the nest.

They should be pretty clear.

If they're used often like a trail

to a nest is,

they're pretty obvious.

This looks like one right here.

Left?

Right by these yellow flowers

in this clump here.

Let's shove the nose of the boat

in here.

Yeah, this is one.

Oh, I can see it.

Yeah. It does look like

it's used pretty frequently too.

That one looks really packed down.

I think it's probably

one leading to a nest.

Alligator trails form a network of

natural pathways through the swamp.

They were often followed

by early explorers.

But there's a drawback.

Alligators like to lie submerged

along the trails.

It's all to easy to step on one.

In the nesting season the female

alligator is on the defensive.

She herself has nothing to fear,

but her eggs are highly vulnerable.

Scavengers often att*ck the nest.

Wait a minute. Here's the nest.

It's been att*cked, hasn't it?

No, I think they've been eaten.

Something's gotten into the nest

and eaten the eggs.

Oh. What would have eaten these then?

Probably either raccoons or black bears

Black bears eat a lot of

alligator nests here.

But I mean raccoons and bears wouldn't

swim and wade through this stuff?

Well, there could be one living

in this island,

or he may have moved

from island to island.

It's hard to say if it was

a black bear or a raccoon though.

Sometimes black bears will pick off

the end of an egg

and just eat the insides out of it.

I don't know how they do it.

They may just use a claw and

just pop the top off and eat it.

This is sort of like an island.

How does the mother make it?

I think this nest is either sunk

from its own weight

after she built it or the water level

in the swamp has risen some.

These things just scrape up all

the dirt and vegetation around them.

You see there's peat in here

and a lot of plant matter

that holds it together.

And also the rotting plant

matter heats the eggs.

It creates heat as it rots,

and it actually keeps the eggs warmer

than they would be just

with the sun on them.

Could she still be around now these

have been eaten?

I think she probably came back

and realized that it had been disturbed

and just lost interest and left.

Let's find another one then.

Okay. That's really too bad.

Often the female alligator

is not far from the nest.

And when she discovers an intruder,

she can be highly aggressive.

John Paling once faced such

a confrontation unexpectedly

when filming a nest.

This was, in Paling's understated words

a moment

"of surprise and serious concern".

It ended only when he backed off,

leaving the nest to its rightful owner

The fierce protection given the nest

plays a vital part

in the life of the redbelly turtle.

The female turtle tries to lay her eggs

in the alligator's nest.

If she succeeds,

the mother alligator

will unwittingly stand guard over

the turtle eggs as well as her own.

Risking att*ck,

the turtle invades the nest

and lays her eggs

taking advantage of the warmth

and moisture.

Leaving her eggs behind,

the turtle tries to get away.

It's just as risky as getting in.

Most adult turtles in Okefenokee

bear the marks of encounters like this.

Often they are not harmed.

It's as if alligators recognize

the turtle after one futile bite.

Finding it hard to cr*ck,

they then leave it alone.

The female turtle has done her part.

She leaves her eggs in the alligator's

protection and will not return.

For otters, turtles are handy

and long-suffering playthings.

Otters are perhaps the most

entertaining inhabitants of Okefenokee

And playfulness is believed

to be one strong indication

of animal intelligence.

Violent thunderstorms often

rake Okefenokee in summer.

And during a dry period

lightning can set the swamp ablaze.

Peat, when dry, is flammable.

It can burn slowly and steadily

for months at a time.

So fire eats away the land

in Okefenokee.

Scientists think such fires may serve

to revitalize the swamp,

creating hollows where new ponds

and lakes form when the drought ends.

Recovery after a fire is swift.

Soon Okefenokee is once again

resplendent with vibrant color.

By late summer the baby alligators

are ready to hatch.

It has taken about nine weeks

for the eggs to incubate.

A chorus of cries from the nest

brings the mother alligator

to assist her young.

The baby turtles may also be hatching

at the same time.

The alligator baby.

Its cries have been loud enough

to be heard

even before the egg has broken open.

Interestingly enough, the sex

of baby alligators

is determined by the temperature

surrounding the eggs

Above 90 degrees Fahrenheit

only males develop.

Below 87 degrees there are

only females.

No one yet knows precisely

how this serves the alligator's survival.

The mother alligator tries to seize the

young in her mouth and carry them away.

The baby turtles aren't so fortunate.

In all the confusion they're

on their own.

With ponderous care,

the mother alligator carries

her young away to water one by one.

The baby turtles seem to know

instinctively to lie low

when the mother alligator is near.

When the baby turtles

make a break for it,

they head unerringly

for the nearest water.

When all this is over,

a new generation of both turtles and

alligators begins life in Okefenokee.

In 1960 a dam was built in

the wildlife refuge

on the Suwannee River

that could change Okefenokee forever.

By holding water in the swamp,

the dam is intended to prevent fires

and loss of timber in nearby forests.

But it could also upset

the balance of fire

and regeneration that makes

the makes the swamp what it is.

Experts disagree,

and it could be decades

before the full impact is known.

In the realm of the alligator,

meanwhile,

life continues according

to an ancient pattern.

At this age the young alligators

are vulnerable to many predators.

They will remain in

their mother's protection

for several months

before going off on their own.

So the alligator has survived

on earth

long before the time of man.

And with sufficient human knowledge

and concern,

the alligator will remain

an ancient and durable survivor

of the distant past.