Gators in Louisiana

One man's endangered species is another man's backyard pest. That modern-age anomaly is the crux of a dispute between the National Audubon Society and Louisiana's Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wild Life. Arguing that a surplus of alligators was eating up such income-producing wildlife as muskrats and waterfowl, Louisiana reopened the swamplands in Cameron Parish to hunters last fall after an eight-year ban. In 13 days, 1,347 alligator hides were turned over to state authorities to be auctioned off to private businessmen. The Audubon Society, which long ago branched out from birds to the protection of all animals, promptly declared open season on Louisiana. Having praised the state in the past for its enlightened protection of gators, the society charged that even a short hunting season undermined public confidence in the federal endangered-species program.

Louisiana officials know that there is more than one way to skin a gator. Still determined to thin out the swamp population, they recently "offered" more than 2,000 of the reptiles to the Audubon Society. The organization's leaders bravely accepted the gift, and plan to truck the alligators to refuges in other Southern states. In the bargain, Audubon officials also got some free advice from William Summerville, general curator of the Staten Island Zoo in New York City: "Keep their backs sprayed while they're in the truck so they don't dry out. Make sure they're all the same size so they don't eat each other, and keep them out of the sun." Oh yes, and don't look a gift gator in the mouth.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.