01x07 - Episode 7

[bunniefuu]

(mid tempo music)

(animals chattering)

- Gators have been around

for millions of years

in the Everglades

as an apex predator

in the ecosystem.

But man almost drove them

to extinction at one point

before utilization

of the species

brought them back

from the brink.

Hunting has become a

controversial practice

in modern times.

My name is Dan Cabela and

I’m traveling the globe

to explore the true impact

that hunting is having

on our remaining

wild landscapes.

This practice goes as far back

as human history can remember

but does it have a place

in modern conservation?

(eerie music)

(mid tempo string music)

(birds chirping)

The Everglades in Florida

is filled with marshes

and holds a paradise

of biodiversity

with a plethora of wildlife.

Alligators currently

thrive in the Everglades

and are considered to

be a keystone species.

Populations have

become quite stable

because of sustainable

utilization

and economic incentives

that exist in the farming

and ranching industry.

Dwindling populations

of alligators

were the result of unregulated

hunting and habitat loss.

They were listed as an

endangered species in 1967.

The number of alligators

began to rebound

when alligator

farms were opened.

Populations have since

improved considerably

and alligators were removed

from the endangered species list

in 1987

and thrive in Florida today.

Sustainable use of alligators

in the United States

generates more than

$70,000,000 annually

at the product level,

providing substantial incentive

for the public to retain

habitat and tolerate alligators.

(mid tempo music)

I’ve decided to take a deeper

look into this recovery

by visiting the heart of

the industry in Florida.

While not commonly thought

of as ranching land,

I’m heading to the Kempfer Ranch

to take a look at the

conservation model

that has brought the

alligator back from the brink

to historic numbers.

The Kempfer Ranch is

primarily a cattle ranch

- [Hoppy] How are

you, I’m Hoppy.

- Nice to meet you, I’m Dan.

- Dan, pleasure to meet you.

- Excited to see what

you guys are doing here.

- Well, it’s gonna

probably be exciting.

So we’re gonna go collect

some alligator eggs

and you’re gonna need to

get some long pants on.

I hope you brought some.

- I did, I did bring some.

- Okay, need some.

- Let me get changed

up and I’ll meet you.

- Change, come on to

cabins right there.

Make yourself at home, get

your stuff and get ready,

and let’s go.

- Sounds good.

- All right, buddy.

- The wetlands of Kempfer

Ranch have been preserved

and kept in a natural state

because of income generated

through the utilization

of the American alligator.

The situation is

similar on many ranches

throughout the state of Florida.

Modern alligator management

primarily includes farming,

harvesting and hatching eggs

for the ranching industry,

and controlled hunting on

both public and private lands.

(mid tempo rock music)

- Hoppy is taking

me into the swamps

for their annual egg collection.

The best way to navigate

this habitat is by airboat

and we’ll be searching for nests

with the help of a biologist.

Harvesting alligator eggs

helps to stabilize

wild alligator numbers.

Biologists have

calculated the number

of nests that can be harvested

while sustaining

healthy populations.

Alligator farms buy the eggs

to raise alligators to

harvest their hides.

The helicopter is often

used to help locate nests

and the biologist communicates

with Hoppy via radio.

A nest has been spotted nearby

and we’re on our way there.

- They’re gonna land

the chopper right here.

- Funds gained by

the sale of eggs

on private and public lands

help to keep habitats intact

and alligator numbers

at stable levels.

- [Hoppy] So Dan, this is the

guy that we’ve been talking to

on the radio all morning.

This is Steve Shea.

- Nice to finally meet you.

- Yeah, I’ve heard

a lot about you.

Glad to meet you.

- Hey buddy.

- How’s it going?

- It’s our wildlife biologist

and certified gator biologist.

So he’s gonna certify

this as a nest over here.

- Yeah.

One of the things that the

state agency has required

is all alligator egg collections

need to be overseen

by a certified

wildlife biologist.

The reason they do that

is to ensure that

the harvest process

is done in a ecologically

and biologically safe way

to be able to sustain

those alligator populations

on private lands forever,

and that’s why I’m

involved here today.

On an alligator nest, you’ll

see what we call a tail drag.

You’ll see this mark

where the female actually

crawls up on top of the nest.

She does that lots

of times at night

to try to protect the

nest from predators.

She’ll scratch up all the

vegetation into a pile,

it’s almost like a compost

pile, it acts the same way.

And as it decomposes, that

vegetation decomposes,

- [Steve] There they are.

- [Dan] Gotta go deep

on some of these.

- A typical alligator nest

has 25 to 50 eggs in it,

the average probably

in the low to mid 30s.

When the embryo starts to form,

it attaches on the

top side of the egg.

And when you’re

collecting the eggs,

you have to make sure that

that surface on the top

always stays up.

And the reason you do

that is if the egg rolled,

the embryo could detach

from the eggshell

and it will k*ll it immediately.

So we take great care to

make sure that those eggs,

the top side always stays up.

(soft music)

- Great care is taken

to keep eggs in their

harvested position.

A final process is

called candling.

- The reason they

use the word candling

is back before they had lights,

they actually used fire

to actually candle eggs.

But you can see use

of the flashlight,

if you hold it to the egg

you can see that dark

middle portion of the egg,

that shows that there’s an

embryo in there and it’s live.

See this egg?

This is a classic egg that

has been not fertilized.

So it’s an infertile egg.

So this egg we would not keep

because we know that there

will not be a live embryo

growing in it.

So what we’ll do is we

will basically remove that

from the clutch.

All right, Dan, we’ve

collected over 50 nests already

from the property.

We have two more that

are really remote nests

back in the big cypress swamp,

and we’ll basically walk

through that cypress head

to those remaining nests

to collect those eggs.

(mid tempo music)

In the cypress drains, the

water fluctuation is tremendous.

During the storm season,

when we have hurricanes,

we’ll have big rainfall events,

15 to 20 inches of rain

and the the creek systems

will elevate rapidly.

So alligators like this

try to build a nest

on as high a ground as they can.

They do this as a strategy

to ensure the survival of the

eggs during high-water events.

There’s a lot of

predators in Florida

that love to eat alligator eggs.

Raccoons are one of

the biggest predators.

Feral hogs also love

to eat alligator eggs.

And a lot of people

don’t realize this

but river otters,

they really love to eat

alligator eggs as well.

(thunder rumbling)

As you can tell by that thunder,

Florida’s rainy

season is upon us.

So we’re gonna try to get

these eggs out of here

before the rain starts.

(mid tempo music)

- Only about 2% of

nested eggs in the wild

survive after hatching.

In farms,

alligator eggs have a better

than 95% survival rate.

- [Steve] Alligator farms

is a relatively large

business in Florida

and the alligators are

raised in captivity.

And then, when

they’re harvested,

the meat is sold to markets

and the hides are processed

and tanned for creating

leather products.

- [Dan] My next

stop is Gatorama,

a commercial farm that

purchases alligator eggs.

It was initially founded in 1957

as a local tourism attraction.

- I’m Allen.

- How are you?

- Good, good.

- [Dan] Allen and Patty

Register are the current owners

and they are in the midst of

distributing eggs to buyers.

- We’re about six days into

our collection right now

so we retain 23,000,

little over 23,000 eggs.

And so they all come,

we have a courier that comes

to each of the locations,

the south crew and

the north crew,

and then they bring

’em to Gatorama.

We have a temporary storage

here, so we put ’em in there

and then once a week

we’ll do the distribution.

This year we’re having

a a banner year.

We had a banner year last year,

but this year seems to

be better than last year.

And I think it’s because

of the lack of rain

and everything’s dry,

nothing’s getting flooded out.

Last year we retained

over 51,000 eggs

which was the best

year we’ve ever had.

- This booming trade is

incentivizing the protection

of healthy alligator populations

on private lands

across the country.

(mid tempo music)

Another form of conservation

that has helped to

bring the alligator

back to stable

numbers is tourism.

I spent some time at Gatorama

to take a look at

the tourism side

of alligator conservation.

Tourism is also

an effective tool

in creating awareness

of a species

that’s been around for a lot

longer than human beings have.

This awareness leads to greater

tolerance for alligators.

Allen’s son Ben is

giving me the chance

to feed some alligators.

- Let’s see if we can

get Jimmy up here.

Jimmy, let’s go big guy.

Come on!

Jimmy, where are you?

All right, there’s

Jimmy right there.

Jimmy, come on.

Jump.

Here you go.

Oh, so close!

So close.

Try it again.

Yeah!

Give me five.

We did it woo!

All right, give him a

round of applause, woo.

(tourists clapping)

- [Dan] Gator viewing

is popular at Gatorama

and for many tourists,

nothing tops seeing a gator

and all of their mystique

in this type of setting.

(mid tempo music)

- We actually have a

pretty cool alligator

we let the guests hold here

and we can let you

hold it if you want to.

- [Dan] No, I’d love to.

- All right, I’ll let you

tape his mouth shut too.

- Okay.

- We use actually vet

wrap, we don’t use tape.

The tape will actually

stick to the animal

and it could hurt it.

So with the vet wrap,

it secures their mouth

but it doesn’t hurt the animal.

So if you wanna hold him,

just grab him by the tail,

front legs,

hold him level, just like that.

There you go.

- And so you call this

a pied?

- Pied alligator.

It’s basically a

genetic mutation.

I’m not really into all

the genetics and stuff.

I’ve heard there’s about

12 of these alligators

in the entire world.

I’ve only seen two

that look like this.

Most of the time they’ll

look like a regular alligator

and just have like one little

white spot on their foot.

So it’s kind of neat

just to have one that’s

totally different colors

and you can actually

see how strong he is

when they start to move,

even though they’re that

small, it’s like whoa.

So you got your hands

on a little one.

You wanna go get

face-to-face with a big one?

- That’d be awesome.

Do I hold it just like this?

- You can try.

(both laughing)

Come on.

Good boy.

Come on, come on.

Good boy.

So this is old timer.

He’s been here since 1957.

He’s one of the original

alligators that we have here.

We don’t really

know how old he is.

We know he’s been here since

1957, so that’s what, 66 years?

He was probably 10

feet back that time

so you had another

20 years of that.

You know, he might be over 100.

Stay outside of his

sweeping motion.

You gotta imagine

if he were to turn,

you know, his head’s

gonna come right here

but he’s not gonna

move super fast.

So if you wanna come

on behind this way

then you can just kind

of like kneel down

and place your arm around him.

Hold, hold.

Good boy.

All right, don’t go anywhere.

- It’s not every day

you get to put your hand

on an animal that’s been on

Earth longer than humans.

I’d say this is a pretty

amazing experience.

(mid tempo music)

As communities and development

have encroached into

alligator habitat,

the need for nuisance

alligator control

has become more prevalent.

By utilizing hunting and

other sustainable-use methods,

it helps to keep alligators

at manageable levels.

It’s a tremendous industry.

So what happens if

you take these animals

and they become

valuable to hunters?

Then the hunters are doing,

and the outfitters like myself,

are doing things to protect them

and to make the herd

healthy so they thrive,

you know, so that it’s

a sustainable resource.

All hunters are

harvesting adult males.

And so if all you’re doing

is harvesting adult males

you have literally zero

effect on population numbers

’cause their females

are not being harvested

and they’re still being

bred by the younger males.

So, you know, you’re not

interrupting anything.

- [Dan] The hunting of gators

is a massive source of

income for landowners

and often necessary for the

control of nuisance individuals

near populated areas.

(mid tempo music)

- [Jamey] Just put it

right behind his eyes

and slowly squeeze.

That’s your boy right there.

(g*n firing)

(mid tempo music)

- Pull tight.

- More?

You grab the rope

and help me pull.

How’s that look?

(uplifting music)

- [Dan] In combination with

the harvesting of eggs,

the sustainable use of gators

helps to keep their

populations in check

and manage human

wildlife conflict

that occurs as human

needs for land increase.

Both of these methods

give the species value

and form the basis of a

sustainable conservation model.

(mid tempo music)

Nothing goes to waste here

after a successful hunt.

I am invited to join the guide

and other Silver Lake

Preserve staff for a meal.

- This is gator bites.

Nice white meat.

There’s dark meat

and light meat,

and the light meat

tends to be more tender.

Please try some.

- It looked like a bird to me

because the front of

it to me looked dark

and it looked like there were

white tail feathers on it.

It has been an

enlightening journey

into the truth behind the

recovery of gator populations

in the United States.

(soft music)

- Like many ecosystems,

the Everglades are delicate

and the financial model

surrounding alligators

has given landowners

the perfect incentive

to preserve large

tracks of this habitat.

The commercial industry

has created value

and with strict regulations

and good management,

the species is thriving

in Florida as a result.

It is the uncontrolled

misuse of alligators

that brought the species

to the brink of extinction,

yet the controlled use of

them has brought them back.

Alligators are an

excellent example

of a species that has

funded its own conservation,

to the point that it’s gone

from threatened to prolific.

(dramatic music)