DURANT, Okla. (KXII) – Oklahoma sits at the northern edge of the American alligator’s range, and a small but established population in the state’s southeastern corner is under pressure from nest predation and extreme weather, according to a researcher tracking the animals.
Jake Pruett, associate professor and biology chair at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, said his team has tagged more than 230 American alligators as part of a long-term monitoring effort.
“For alligators, we’re about as north as they get, especially on the west end of their range,” Pruett said.
Only a few alligators are found in Bryan and Choctaw counties. McCurtain County holds the largest concentration — and the only confirmed breeding population in the state.
“The county that had the most was McCurtain County,” Pruett said. “You look around and it feels like a Louisiana swamp and it’s the perfect alligator habitat and because that’s where we know we have a breeding population.”
For a population this small, nest predation poses a significant setback. Many hatchlings never make it out of the nest.
Pruett identified raccoons as the primary threat to alligator eggs in Oklahoma.
“Raccoons decimate the nests. And once they find a nest, they come back until pretty much every egg is consumed,” he said.
Pruett said that in one year, raccoons wiped out every nest his team found, resulting in no new hatchlings the following season.
Cold weather also poses a risk. “Our population is an at-risk population because it is so small. So random events like those freezes can definitely set us back,” Pruett said.
Alligators in Oklahoma are generally afraid of people, Pruett said. His advice: keep your distance and do not feed them.
“If you feed an alligator a few times, they’re smart enough to figure that out, that association, and they’ll start losing their fear of people,” he said.
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