A heavily scarred alligator found refuge in a backyard pool in Los Fresnos, Texas.<\/p>\n
What happened?<\/p>\n
On July 28, Jake “Gator Jake” Reinbolt of the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center reported for duty when a caller reported a six- to eight-foot alligator lounging on their property, as\u00a0 AOL reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once Reinbolt and a colleague trapped the reptile, they determined the alligator was 10 feet long \u2014 longer than expected but still shorter than the 11.2-foot average length of a male American alligator.<\/p>\n “He would have been slightly longer but he was missing the last 4 to 6 inches of his tail,” Reinbolt said. He said the alligator also carried older injuries, including a bite mark and a bullet hole in its face.<\/p>\n Why does it matter?<\/p>\n Active in the warmer months, gators have become all too common in residential areas as development spreads and more people are living closer to wetlands, rivers, and other wildlife corridors.<\/p>\n The Los Fresnos alligator’s injuries indicate altercations with other animals in addition to human harassment, even though alligators are strictly protected in Florida by state and federal laws.<\/p>\n “I imagine that it was competition and human interference that encouraged him to try and find a new home,” Reinbolt said.<\/p>\n Research and reporting on human-wildlife conflict have described how habitat disruption and human behavior can increase the chances of dangerous encounters<\/a>. University of Florida News reported that 96% of recorded alligator attacks involved some kind of “human inattention or risk-taking.”<\/p>\n What’s being done?<\/p>\n Experts generally recommend keeping pools and yards as unappealing to wildlife as possible, and supervising pets and children closely near water. If a gator is spotted, contact trained officials immediately and do not engage with the animal on your own, as intentionally handling, harassing, or killing an unauthorized alligator is classified as a third-degree felony in Florida.<\/p>\n Reinbolt said his team was able to safely relocate the alligator and return it to the wild with the assistance of Texas Game Wardens.<\/p>\n Get TCD’s free newsletters<\/a> for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A heavily scarred alligator found refuge in a backyard pool in Los Fresnos, Texas. What happened? On July…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[311975,249242,344602,344603,344604,79,155210,1022,201,101279],"class_list":["post-812011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-alligator-attacks","tag-american-alligator","tag-jake-quotgator-jakequot-reinbolt","tag-los-fresnos","tag-reinbolt","tag-science","tag-south-padre-island","tag-texas","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-corridors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}