Okie ‘gators of the Red Slough O
By Charles Sasser
klahoma is noted for buffalo, prairie chickens and perhaps a mythical jackalope or two— but it is not known for the
American alligator. Robert Bastarache arrived in Oklahoma in 1991 for assignment as district wildlife biologist for the USDA Ouachita National Forest in eastern Oklahoma. Born and reared in Virginia and having earned a degree in wildlife management from West Virginia University, he was skeptical of rumors about alligators in Oklahoma. “People kept telling me they had seen
them, but it seemed to me almost like the Bigfoot legend,” he says. Not until nine years later, in 2000, did rumors become reality when the biolo- gist spotted his fi rst live alligator basking in the swamps of the Red Slough located in Choctaw Electric Cooperative’s ser- vice territory in southeastern Oklahoma’s McCurtain County. Five years after that, he and an employee with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) discovered a nest, which indi- cated the animal was not alone and that it was reproducing. The Red Slough is a vast wetlands wild- life refuge southeast of Idabel, Okla., near the borders of Arkansas and Texas. In the 1960s, the swamps were drained, cleared and converted to agriculture for rice, soybeans and corn. In 1996, farmer Philip Hogan enrolled most of his farm in the Wetlands Reserve Program. Today, the Red Slough consists of 5,814 acres cooperatively managed by the U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the ODWC. It has become one of the hottest recre- ational districts in the U.S. for birders and other wildlife enthusiasts. To date, 318 bird species have been noted in the area, many of which are rare and not found regularly elsewhere in the state. The region is known for black bear, tur- key, raccoon, beaver, otter, bald
Top: iStock photo. Right: An adult Oklahoma ‘gator takes a nap in the sun. Photo courtesy of U.S. Forest Service
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eagle, various waterfowl, the occasional cougar, and now the American alligator. Tales of Oklahoma alligators fi rst sur- faced in 1866 when a man who lived in the community of Clear Lake near the slough bragged of having killed one of the animals. The big reptiles were rarely, if ever, sighted for another century and a half, not until after rice fi elds were recon- stituted into wetlands and wildlife spe- cialists began nurturing and protecting them. Now, the swamps of the slough are home to an estimated 30 to 50 alligators, some of which may reach lengths of 12 feet and weigh several hundred pounds. “An alligator
specialist with the
Oklahoma City zoo toured Red Slough and said we have room and enough feed in Red Slough for another 200 to 300 ‘gators to live,” Bastarache says. Speculation is that the animals origi- nally migrated to Oklahoma up from Louisiana through the Red River system to make Red Slough and the Little River area their northernmost range. Alligators, like snakes and lizards and other reptiles, are cold-blooded creatures that prefer warm climates. Weather in this remote corner of Oklahoma is noted for relative- ly mild winters, but it is occasionally sus- ceptible to snow and freezes. Oklahoma alligators adapt by burrowing into the earth and foliage and shutting down their metabolisms. They can survive in this semi-hibernation state for two to five weeks at a time. Oklahoma’s colder climate may be a major reason for the alligators’ slow re- production rate. Females in Louisiana and Florida nest early in the spring, lay- ing clutches of three dozen or more eggs in 3-foot-tall mounds of soil and vegeta- tion that hatch through fermentation action in 90 days. Since females in Oklahoma nest later in the season be- cause of cold weather, their offspring ar- rive as late as September or October. Babies have a shorter time span to grow and put on body fat before winter.
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