Exploring Nature: Alligators in Texas

Thankfully, alligators are not found in our area of Texas and you won’t find these creatures in the San Marcos or Blanco rivers.

However, alligators are quite common in the eastern third of Texas, especially in Jefferson, Orange and Chambers counties. In fact, it is said there are more gators in Chambers County than there are people.

A good place to see them is Brazos Bend State Park, not far from Houston. This park has about 250 gators over six feet long, in some one thousand acres of water.

Alligators eat anything they can catch, including fish, turtles, lizards, snakes, small mammals, birds and other alligators. They are especially vocal during mating season, when the males will grunt, bellow and hiss.

Adult gators are almost all black, with prominent eyes and nostrils which may be exposed above water when the reptile is submerged. They have coarse scales over their body and grow 6-14 feet long.

Alligators are relatively inactive from October until early March, but pick up the pace in spring and summer. Males have a territory of about ten square miles.

Females lay up to 36 eggs in a clutch, each about three inches long. New-born gators are about nine inches long and will stay with their mom for about two years.

You need a special permit in Texas to hunt, raise or possess an alligator.

Finally, let me end on a fascinating factoid. Alligators swallow stones and it is not unusual to find several inside an adult gator. Why do they do this? Scientists think the stones help in digesting the reptile’s food, and also may enable them to spend more time easily submerged.

Or maybe they just like the taste.