[Albion Wilde]

Baby alligators are remarkable in their coloration and perfect, almost jewel-like form. It is easy to see why people would want them as pets when they are small.

Mother and baby:

[USAF1985]

How many to make a belt? Almost kidding...

[Rockingham]

When I was briefly part of a gator survey decades ago, it was with a wildlife biologist and a group of friends. We went at night in a couple of trucks along abandoned asphalt roads in a large failed subdivision that was flooded by seasonal flow from the Everglades.

Our survey consisted of going from road to road estimating the population of large gators from eye shine and grabbing a few dispersed babies and yearlings for closer examination and measurement. With hunting banned for some years, the gators were thriving.

After an early phase when mothers protect alligator hatchlings, the babies scatter lest they be eaten by her or other alligators. As the biologist explained, the surviving babies and yearlings would continue to disperse from the colony of adult alligators before settling into new territories and eventually reproducing as adults.

In effect, I got to see the rebound of Florida's alligator population in its earliest phase. Now the state is rife with them -- although not quite like in the days of the first European explorers. William Bartram’s Man-Eating Monster