Green Cay Alligator Babies - One Year Old!
Every creature deserves to have a birthday celebration and our baby gators
at Green Cay Wetlands recently celebrated theirs.
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Last year we all were treated to a once-in-a- lifetime event... watching the birth of several (about 2 dozen) baby alligators.
It began sometime in June 2011 when we noticed a mother alligator beginning to build her nest. Appropriately, she chose an area of Green Cay known as the Alligator Hole.
So every day for over 2 months the regular walkers at Green Cay went by the alligator hole to check on the progress. Once the nest, which is a mound of grass, dirt and mud, is built, mother gator stays close by to ward off predators such as raccoons, snakes and other birds.
On August 23rd, as walkers were beginning their morning walks, there was mother gator helping her hatchlings make their way to the water.
She’d been at it I’m sure for hours for when we arrived before 7a.m. many of the babies were already out of the nest and you could see shell remnants in the water.
Fast forward one year and throughout the 12 months there were scattered sightings of the babies in different areas of Green Cay.
At birth the gators are about 6-8 or 10 inches long and grow from 2-12 inches a year.
What began as pod of maybe 2 dozen babies has dwindled. Just a few months ago, we could spot 2 or 3 in a different area of Green Cay.
And in late August, around their birthday, we’ve only seen one... back in the gator hole. It is said that only 1 out of every 10 survive through the first year. And it is not until they’re about 4 feet long that their primary predator is man.
The Babies at birth in the top picture and
the remaining baby 1 Years old.
So Happy Birthday to our Green Cay Wetlands Babies.
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