
DATE: Monday, May 26, 1997                  TAG: 9705260037

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: GATES, N.C.                       LENGTH:   92 lines

GATORS ARE MAKING RETURN TO OLD SWAMPING GROUNDS THE REPTILES ARE BACK - AND PARK RANGERS ARE TICKLED.

The reports started last summer. There were alligators in Merchants Millpond State Park.

Alligators? In Gates County?

Park Ranger Floyd Williams told the first spotters he felt sure that they'd seen a water snake or a log, that alligators hadn't been seen around there in 300 years.

Well, they're back, as Williams - and several visitors this spring - can attest.

Posters long have warned campers and visitors to be wary of snakes and lizards. Now another has been added: ``Be aware that alligators are present in this area. If you have any questions, please contact the park staff!''

Williams, with 20-plus years at the park, had never heard of a gator sighting until being told last summer that an alligator had struck at a fisherman's lure. Then on Aug. 25, another fisherman landed one - a 3-foot, 6-pound alligator.

``Lo and behold, I was able to pick up this alligator and hold it in my hands,'' Williams said.

Gator sightings have continued this spring.

``It's like they're swimming and sunning themselves all over,'' Williams said. ``I had three or four sets of people come in last weekend, saying they'd seen them.''

He said, ``The gators aren't something we were expecting. But now that they're here, we're pleased.''

The 3,200-acre park, a little more than 20 miles from Suffolk, is outside the normal East Coast alligator territory - from Florida to the southern fringe of the Albemarle Sound.

But in Colonial times, alligators were found throughout coastal North Carolina, and early naturalists reported that gators roamed as far north as the Great Dismal Swamp and Back Bay.

After the fisherman's catch, Williams contacted every gator expert he could find. Dr. Phillip Doer, with the zoology department at the University of North Carolina, believes the young gators may have made their way from the Albemarle, down the Chowan River, and into Merchants Millpond.

``I just can't see two alligators packing their bags and swimming up the river,'' Williams said. ``I think somebody may have released them here, but they are native to the area.''

Park officials kept the gator they named Wally in a pen for observation for about 10 days.

``The research people were like - `Wow! This is great!' '' Williams said. ``There has definitely been some excitement.''

Park rangers decided that the reptile was wild. It was skittish around people, wouldn't eat if anyone was watching.

On Free Wally Day, the release was videotaped. Wally swam off in one part of the millpond.

A couple of hours later, as Williams was canoeing in another part of the millpond several miles away, he saw another alligator, about a foot longer and with a slightly different pattern on its tail.

``I feel certain there are at least two here, maybe three,'' Williams said.

Manley Fuller, a graduate student working with Doer to study alligators in North Carolina in the early 1980s, wrote that alligators can exist easily in this climate but that they grow much more slowly than gators in warmer climates.

Alligators hibernate during cold months. Based on that, a gator in North Carolina would reach maturity - about 6 feet long - in its 16th to 20th year. In warmer climates, they reach maturity in about nine years. Gators can live 50 years or longer.

Alligators have been protected since 1973, under the Federal Endangered Species Act, which makes it illegal to possess or export alligator hides. In Florida and Louisiana, gator numbers have increased to the point that carefully regulated harvesting is allowed.

The largest alligator recorded in North Carolina measured 12 feet, 7 inches and was estimated to be about 45 years old.

Alligators, Fuller said in his report, are the last surviving members of the Archosauria, the super order that includes most dinosaurs. Gators have remained unchanged for more than 100 million years.

``When you see an alligator,'' Fuller said, ``you're as close to a dinosaur as you'll ever be.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by NORTH CAROLINA PARKS AND RECREATION

PHOTOS

Wally the Gator sneaks a peek from his watery home in Merchants

Millpond State Park in Gates County. Local alligator sightings

resumed last summer after a hiatus of about 300 years.

Floyd Williams, a park ranger, holds Wally the Gator, who was caught

by a fisherman at Merchants Millpond State Park. On Free Wally Day,

the 3-foot, 6-pound creature was released while the video cameras

rolled. Alligators can live 50 years or more, experts say.

Map

AREA SHOWN: Merchants Millpond KEYWORDS: ALLIGATOR