Alligators have been spotted in the waters of Virginia Beach. Is this a sign of global warming – or are pet gators slipping the proverbial leash?
I like to think that wild gators are making a comeback in the Old Dominion. Think of how much livelier the local news will be when dogs and small children start mysteriously disappearing!
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Maybe it’s global warming and maybe just a cleaner environment. Alligators used to extend to Virginia but by the 1960s, their breeding populations had gone no farther north than southeastern N.C. A lot of that is probably due to polluted waters and logging practices resulting in habitat destruction. More recently, the gators started breeding in more northerly areas, such as East Lake, N.C. which is a few miles west of Manteo and Nags Head. One reason is that the surrounding areas was donated by timber companies to a wildlife refuse. Habitat restored.
It could be that the Virginia Beach gators were released pets, but who knows?
Also, didn’t alligator eggs have the same problems with DDT, the same thing that was wiping out the bald eagles back in the day?
Alligator meat tastes great with a side of Bacon.
This is good news for bloggers with a culinary appreciation of road kill.
Jim should keep up the good work.
re: global warming… ddt, food, etc, et al
Is it a coincidence that just west of Nags Head/Manteo that there is a river called the Alligator River?
I dunno about ddt but alligators have been a favorite of some who like to shoot wildlife… for sport – to the point where they no longer exist in many places that they used to.
.. besides those who prefer their “wildlife” to be cuddly stuffed versions usually want no part of the real thing.. near their back yards. right?
We share our back yard with bears, occasionally, face to face.
Recently a bear killed a neighbors pig and attacked cattle.
I suspect that bear is not long for this world.
RH
Cattle are expendable, but when the bear kills a pig — one of the most intelligent, social and lovable of all creatures — it’s time to take out the bear.
take a trip on the Nahanni River where you camp every night on a gravel bar… and your two weeks of food is on that same gravel bar.
Now add a curious and/or hungry grizzly.
“not long for this world” – takes on a whole new meaning…
We had no such problems but it was always on our mind – that Mr. Bear – unquestioningly calls the shots up there…
You never know. Once I was camping at Yellowstone, in a well populated campsite.
In the middle of the night there was a blood curling scream from a nearby tent.
Some fellow with long hair was sleeping there and his hair was outside the tent flap. A munching bison accidentally got ahold of his hair and yanked him bodily out of the tent.
“Flight of the Eagle” tells the story of Norwegian Polar explorers who attempted to traverse the polar region by balloon. The end of the story tells graphically how they were picked off, one by one, by bears. A few years ago the photgraphs and journals were found in the stone igloo where they died, and the actual photographs and quotes from the journals were incorporated into the film.
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