Now alligators are leaving Floriduh

[TexLaProgressive]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/09/10/us/police-catch-new-jersey-alligator-trnd/index.html

[TheRealNorth]

1. Lol

It does seem to be a growing problem of people releasing alligators. There have been at least 2 stories of alligators in Minnesota in the past 10 years.

[Aristus]

2. When alligators are tired of Florida's shit, it's time to call it a day.

n/t

[Solly Mack]

3. Alligators have been moving north for a while now.

And by "north" I mean North Carolina and even Virginia. Alligators need it to be a certain temp for survival. Cold isn't inducive to their survival. The temp impacts their breeding, which of course impacts their numbers, as well as their ability to digest food. They need it to be warm.

Many though were bought/captured as pets and released in places you don't normally have alligators.

As temps rise, more places will become habitable for them, and they will be seen more and more frequently in the north.

[TexLaProgressive]

4. I get it climate change

But I prefer the hypothesis that they're fleeing daSatin.

[Solly Mack]

5. I'd flee, too. But maybe if I was a gator, I'd form an alliance with the crocs and eat republicans.

[Tommy Carcetti]

6. I'd like to visit Merchant Millpond in North Carolina one day.

The northern most confirmed natural population of alligators. (Although there are rumors about them in Virginia's Great Dismal Swamp which is only about 20 miles north.)

Now, as a Floridian I can see alligators in any number of lakes and ponds in my area without hesitation.

But there's something about seeing them at the extreme edges of their territory that's thrilling to me. Sort of like panthers in the Everglades.

[Solly Mack]

7. I can see that. A little thrill from seeing them north of their usual stomping grounds.

I'm in Louisiana, so I can relate to seeing them all the time.

[LeftInTX]

8. Around here, the "alligator belt" stops at a swampy natural lake a few miles south of San Antonio.

They don't venture further north because the conditions just aren't optimal for them. (Well, once in a while they do, but...they're caught and released) There are too many people. Water is shallow etc. Maybe it moves too fast for them etc.

The also like the hydroelectric dammed lakes because...yeah...

They tend to avoid colder dammed areas. I have heard rumors they have been spotted north of cold water dammed areas in the Texas Hill Country. For some reason the water release is quite cold for miles south of the dams.


They do live in the swampy lake and are plentiful in South Texas. They are abundant in a dammed reservoir in South Texas, but I don't think the water released from that lake is very cold.

They prefer warm, slow moving water.

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. The reason water is cold downstream of dams...

is because more often than not, the water intake on the reservoir side of a dam is deep, closer to the bottom of the lake so the water is naturally colder than at the surface.

[boston bean]

10. That belt looks like an alligator with its mouth wide open.

[unc70]

11. Gators are further north than shown on your map

I grew up on the coast of North Carolina near the edge of the northern range on your map. There were plenty of gators there 70 years ago. They seem to really like golf courses. You even see one occasionally on the barrier islands.

[Conjuay]

12. those bought as pets

are usually S.A. caimans, not alligators. The sale /possession of alligators was banned in the early 70’s (I believe) as they were becoming endangered. And a gator purchased in the sixties would be quite large, not four or five feet long.

As for one turning up in New Jersey, it would not survive the winter, and caimans are even more tropical than alligators. So someone caught the one pictured (in the article)in the south and kept it until it was to big for the aquarium it was in.

This happens, unfortunately, one 3 - 4 foot gator in our pond would approach people looking for food. Once it was caught, it was obvious someone had owned it for a while- it had a ‘piercing’; a guitar pick was attached to it using a snap swivel.

The point I am trying to make is that, yes, warming would account for gators in NC or even VA, but not NJ -just yet.