North Carolina Officials Consider Opening First Alligator Season
OutdoorHub Reporters 12.09.15
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) is seeking public input on a possible alligator hunting season in the near future. According to The Virginian Pilot, a spokesman for the commission said that the season would likely run from September 1 to October 1, if approved, with a bag limit of just one alligator. Firearms will not be allowed. Hunters would have to choose between harpoons, bows and arrows, or clubs as their weapon of choice.
North Carolina is on the northernmost range of the American alligator, and the reptiles tend to live in large communities. Earlier this year scientists at North Carolina State University held the state’s first survey of the animals in nearly 30 years. Researchers found that the alligator population in the state is stable, and in many places, increasing.
Counting the scaly reptiles was time-consuming work and decidedly low-tech. According to The News & Observer, researchers used a boat to travel up and down 827 miles of coastline. Each alligator had to be counted manually by using a spotlight to illuminate their eyes while a statistical model estimated the number of alligators that were hidden.
Their conclusion was that the state alligator population was healthy, but vulnerable. Alligators are currently considered a threatened species in North Carolina.
Officials said that the proposed season is meant only to manage alligator populations that have grown too large. A number of alligator attacks in recent years have also contributed to public fear of the critters.
“With the ever changing landscape here in the state, not only has the alligator population increased, but the human population has as well, which leads to alligator and human conflicts, especially in the Wilmington and Brunswick County areas,” NCWRC Captain Todd Radabaugh told WECT.
Radabaugh said that the officials will be holding a series of public hearings starting next year regarding the gator hunt. A final vote will be taken after February. Experts are still deliberating rules for the season, including regulations, the total quota of alligators taken, and how the lottery will work.
