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Alligator-Induced Human Casualities Are Very Rare. a 32-Year O1d Nan Living in French Settlement, Ld. Was Bitten by an Alligator on July 25, L992

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Alligator-Induced Human Casualities Are Very Rare. a 32-Year O1d Nan Living in French Settlement, Ld. Was Bitten by an Alligator on July 25, L992 Alligator-induced human casualities are very rare. A 32-year o1d nan living in French Settlement, Ld. was bitten by an alligator on July 25, L992. He was doing repair work under his house on the bank of the Amite River when he was attacked. Just one rnonth earlier he had been bitten by a water moccasin, also at his house on the rnuddy riverbank. To our knowledge there have been no alligator-related fatalities in Louisiana, although it was belj.eved that a blacksrnith was attacked and killed by an alligator while bathing in the Red River at Fort St. Jean Baptiste in Na+'chi'uoches, LA in L734. Alligator Far:ling/RancbiDg Progr:n Louisiana has an extensive alligacor farming/ranching program which has been described previously (Joanen and McNease 1987,L99l-, Elsey et aI 1991). Most stock is derived by ranching of wild e99s collected from privately-owned wetlands. A percentage of the eggs hatched is returned to the wj-Id when alligators are approxirnately 4 feet in length to ensure wild populations are not depleted. A conservative program such as this was establj.shed due to the aggressive egg collections (nearly 300,000 harvested in 1990) and superimposed annual September harvest of 25,000 (predoninantly adults ) aJ.J-i-gators . Declining prices of crocodilian ski-ns causeo some of the smal1er, Iess well-established farrns to dj.scontinue production in recent )rears. The maxirnum number of farms licensed was i35 in l-99L, however onJ.y 119 had stock. Some "Iicensed farmsrr actually are land managers setling eggs, or egg hatcheries that collect, incubate, hatch eggs and seII hatchll-ngs, etc. but do not have facilities to raise alligators nor sell skins. At present there are 101 licensed farms in Louisiana, of which 86 have stock. ?ffz The sizes (by inventory) of the farms in La. is shown in TabLe 2 below. t'enty fatsls are very sma1L, having only 1-1Oo alligators left in stock. Ten have between 101 and 500 alligrators, and the rest are larger farms. six farms have over 10,000 alligators; the Iargest has some 59,000 alligators. Total year-end stock (December L993) was approximately 258t3t4 (Table 3 below). LOUISTA}IA ALLIGATOR FART'TS YEAR END I}TVENTORIES r}rVENTORY 1989 1990 19 91 1qo" . I AA IUU o I\J 1n L7 20 101 500 z+ z2 2L 501 1, 000 J-d z.L zz L7 1, 001 2 ,5OO 4L 30 29 20 2,sOL 5, ooo 8 t7 11 10 5,001 10,000 q I > 10,000 6 Fifty farms were 'ractive" in egg ranchj.ng in 1993, some L22,409 hatchlings e/ere added to Louisiana farms frorn ranched eggs. The downward trend in egg collection since the peak in 1990 appears to be stabilizing; only four fewer farrns ranched eggs in t 993 compared to l-992 (Tab1e 4 below). LOUISIANA ALLiGATOR FARMS HATCHLINGS # FARI'IS TOTAL YEAR YEAR ADDED W/HATCHLINGS END STOCK 198 9 150,095 57 L>+,lJU/ 1990 249 ,6L6 l6 325 ,45L 199 1 It'U,JIJ 72 ? 1 R 1'7'7 L992 L46 ,077 CA 4>L,>6JAA< 1qa" L22,4O9 <n 258 ,3I4 ALl sheds on alligator farnrs/ranches were inspected by Fur and N3 Refuge Division personnel in L992/L993 to ensure cornpliance with f ar-ming regrulations and standards of care. Extensive annual reports documenting inventory, hatch rates, etc. are required and reviewed in detail prior to issuance of the new year's farrning license. Recent changes (Sept L992) in a1lJ-gator regulations stipulate that every skin (farm or wild) be inspected by LDWF before shipping in state to a tannery or overseas. A mani.fest containing CITES tag numbers, lengths, buyer deaLer records and severance tax must be provided; and each CITES is individually verified before a "d9 shipping tag is issued. Also (since Sept. 1993), the S4.00 CITES tag fee is now paid by the dealer at the tj.ne of shiprnent, rather than by the farmer/hunter before the alligators are harvested. It would be naive tro presume the dealers do not adjust their skin price so the farmer pays all or a portion of the tag fee, but this does prevent the farmer from having to pay the tag fee "up frontrl before a definite sale for his skins is set. More interest has been seen recently in the demand for smaller ( 3 , ) f arm skins (Figrure 3 belon) , whereas the wild skins taken still average 7t length. FREOUENCY BY SIZE OF ALLIGATOFIS. 1992 - 93 P9RCENT - FARM. N = i28.30O 40 1 - WILD, N = z4,soo ?o loi I I i 0i 0 1234 o 7 I 9 10 11 12 t3 14 ft M 't.2 .. q.J .3 .6 .9 t.f 1.8 z. | 1.q 4.t J 3.7 m The nurnber of Louisiana farms selling skins and the number of skins sold is shown in Table 5 berow. Again, the rising number of skins sold in 199L/L992 reflects the very high egg collecti-on rates fron 1989 /L99o, taking L-2 years for an alligator to reach market size. The number of skins sold in the 1993 tag year should. decrease in propor-.ion to the decrease in eqg corlection in L99L/L992, and then stabilize as has the number of hatchlinqs aoded annually recently. LOUSIANA ALLIGATOR FARMS SKINSSOLD BY TAG ).EAR TOTAL SKINS # FARMS TAG YEAR SOLD SELLING 1988 27 ,7 49 ?1 1989 56,737 ot 1990 88 ,220 l qql 11q '7ae -1v I t r v >U L992 LZO,JJ) 80 Major receivers of Loui-siana skins is shown in Figure 4. This represents skins soLd in the L992 tag year (Septernber Lg92-August 1993) . There has been a substantial increase in the percent of skins sent to Singapore (72 in 1990 , L7Z in Lgg2) and tannerles in the uni.ted stares (4e. in l-990, L6z in l-992) ; whrle r*-a1y receiveci 39t in 1990 but just 158 in 1992. This may be d.ue:-o che -urade ban at that time in Italy and expansion of US tanneries, including two in Louisiana. France continues to receive the majoriry of Louisiana produced skins. n5 MAJOR RECEIVERSOF LOUISIANASKINS FHANCE 44",L FFIANCE 27",'," PAN ']-i1. 8",'o ITALY UN|TEDSTATES ::::'*-* rTALY 1se.. 149'," 1""" 16" srNGApoRE 1 6/" UNITEDSTATES 18.,L Wild Skins = 25,864 Farm Skrns = 125.31't Faru rrreturus to tbe wildrf Progran Due 'r-o the very large number of alligrator eggs harvested in Louisiana and the superi-mposed adult harvest, alligat'or ranchers nust return a percentage of eggs hatched to the wild as juvenile allj-gators. The amount to return is based on estimated natural survivorship/nortality curves in alligators (Taylor and Neal 1984) and varies with the size of the alligators. A sliding scale of return percentages is based on the averagre length of the alligators to be returned. For example at 35tr average length,29.6Z of e99s hatched are returned; at 48rr a L7* return rate is needed, and at EOil only 9. Bt are returned, ES larger animals presunably survive better and would be less prone to cannibalism, probably the hi.ghest mor-.ality factor in subadult alligators (Rootes, 1989). Alligators are measured, Sexed, and tagged by LDWF personnel and releases carefully nonitored. The number of eggs ranched and alliga*-ors returned is shown in Table 5 below. The rancher has tvo years from the year -.he eggs were collected until a 3'-5'alligator must be returned',o the wi1d. Prelininary results documented that released alligators grow as well as wild alligators and feed normally (Elsey et aI 1991, L992) . ffi STOCKINGAND WILD RETURNS RANCHED ATLIGATORS I!.AK Elr('D RETIIRNED r:rt'0 L, )ZJ L>6 t 18,041 54 ,88'l 1, 580 -vLtv-J t,vt<5 'l aqn 293 ,4L2 5, 0gg t98 , 089 44 ,405 ?q F'l 1 LO+ , A>Z JJ'JJL L44 ,84l. 28 ,5L2 I'mark An ex'i-ensive wild and recapture[ prograrn of night work was started in 1990 for comparison of growth and survivorshj-p to the farro-released alligators, and also to attempt to recapture farm-released alligators. In l-990, 183 alli-gators were caught in 2 nights;1004 al-ligators were caught in 1991 in 8 nights;3oo alligators were caught in !992 in 3 nights; and in L993 over 14oo alligators were caught in 9 nights. Also during september wi1d. -,o harvests, alligators trapped and brought skinning sheds are searched by LDWF personnel at processing sheds to check for retrapped wiid or farm alligators. Over ilOO retraps have been recordeC. Numerous farm-released juvenlies have reached adult s:ze class, ano several 5'-7'farm-released alli-gators were harvest.ed in 1993. The iargest farm retrap was a 7,3n nare caught 9-lo-93 whrch / was released nearly 4 years earlier at 3 3 " . A series of reproductive tracts has been collected from rarm- reieased alligators which v/ere harvested in the wild season. ft has been shown that alligators can attain sexual maturity earLler when raised initially in heated tanks than witd alligator (Joanen and McNease 1987). we are comparing the reproductive tracts of N7 farm-released alligators (gonad dirnensj-on and status) to similar sized wj.ld alligators. As the ranched egg collecti.on peaked in 1990, the alligators released peaked in L991 (Table 5 prior page). Generally released farmed alligators average 42'tl thus these al-ligator's growth races in the wild should have them approaching 6 feet in Iength in 1994/L995 and appear in the September harvests those years, generating more recapture data.
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