It's gator season

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sean Martin
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  Barksdale Air Force Base hosted an alligator hunt from Sept. 5-16. This was the first hunt held on Barksdale in 13 years.

"The last alligator hunt took place in 1999," said Mark Gates, Barksdale AFB wildlife biologist. "We manage the gator population on a territory saturation type method. If there is space available for the gators in the wild, it's okay. If we notice them spreading out to other areas they are not supposed to be in, we will schedule a hunt."

Barksdale was awarded 30 alligator tags for this year's hunt by the state of Louisiana. An alligator tag lottery was held here in order to award 30 individuals, and 10 alternates, alligator hunting tags.

"Tags are issued by the number of acres of alligator habitat a place has," said Gates. "Barksdale has almost 1,100 acres of habitat."

The tags allowed hunters to set their own traps, wrestle the alligators if caught and pull them up from the water to be shot by six designated guides on base.

"A tag-holder must be a state resident by Louisiana law," said Gates. "Seeing as how a good portion of the base is non-residents, we had the tags written in the names of the six guides on base."

The only method allowed to hunt and trap alligators on base is the hook and line method.

"The hook and line method is the only method allowed to hunt gators on base," said Staff Sgt. David Wales, 2nd Security Forces Squadron game warden NCO in charge. "It is done by tying a line to a tree or piece of bamboo and hanging your bait from there, which normally consists of chicken that has been sitting out for a few days."

The line has to be at least a 300 pound test line or more and the hook cannot be stainless steel, because it takes longer for the alligator to digest, said Wales.

Once the alligators were caught, they were brought in to the Natural Resources Center on base to have their information documented before being transported off base.
"The alligators were brought to our check station where they were weighed, measured and the sex was determined," said Gates. "We also wrote down the tag number as well as the hunter's information."

Although alligator hunts do not happen often, they are an important part of helping to control the alligator population as well as keep the amount of incidents down.

"The hunt allows us to bring down the population a little bit," said Wales. "After 13 years, the population has grown tremendously and this is a good way for us to regulate the amount of alligators on base while maintaining zero incidents with base personnel."

The alligator hunting season for the state of Louisiana runs until the end of September, but the season ends Sept. 16 for Barksdale personnel.