ALLIGATOR BEHAVIOR page 5l: BABY ALLIGATORS --part 12 Alligator nests and babies
This page was born 02/14/2024.  Rickubis designed it.   Last update: 02/15/2024
Images and contents on this page copyright ©2024 Richard M. Dashnau    

  Most of these were posted on the RICKUBISCAM page first, then moved here.  Unlike most of my other pages, the entries on this page
will be shown in chronological order from top to bottom (since this makes following the progression of events easier), so scroll to the
bottom to see the latest posts. This may require a lot of scrolling, depending on how often I've recorded events--but I hope that you'll
enjoy the journey.

01/21/2024 It was cold again at BBSP.  When I checked the temperature at the Forty Acre Parking Lot, it was 39.2°F, almost the same as the previous
weekend. But the air on this day was very damp. This damp air, when moving, can draw the heat right out of me. It's always colder down near the Observation Tower, mostly
because of the wind blowing off of Pilant Lake. The morning was overcast, and the air was hazy--which is further indication of hold cold it would feel.  
While heading back West on the Spillway Trail I found the mother alligator (as far as I know) where I'd last seen her, on the South side of the trail. No sign of any babies.
The history of this pod up to this day is shown on this page.
   

01/28/2024  Good news! We got some water at Brazos Bend State Park. We almost got too much, since the Brazos River got close to flood stage at
the river gage at Rosharon (about 45 feet).  Big Creek rose enough to overflow into Hale Lake and fill that very nicely (though I didn't go look, since it that area of the park
was still flooded.)  But that water didn't really go much further into the park. Instead, the direct rain that fell on Pilant Lake and Elm Lake brought up the water levels there,
and along Pilant Slough. I observed that myself.  So, here are a few images from that wonderful sunny day.
It was cold (44.7°F) up at the 40Acre Parking lot. Although it's usually colder down on the trails, I was also hoping that the sunny day would warm things a bit. Through
the past months, I've been stopping just East of the Observation Tower and taking pictures across Pilant Lake. It looked great today!
 

One might be asking, "What about the alligators? How did they cope with the added water? I found the mother gator that had the pod just East of the Spillway as I was
 moving towards Elm Lake near 10am. She was still South of the trail, but I didn't see any babies at first. When I returned to the spot about 2:30pm I saw a few of the
babies. I could hear some chirping from cover, and found a few hidden among the weeds by using binoculars. A few of them came out of the plants, and came out into
 the open. 
   

I estimate that the water level in Elm Like may have come up 2 or 3 feet. The "shelf" directly across from the trail end was under water again. There was a large alligator on
 the bank on our side, and I stayed near it for a few hours. Air temperature was about 55°F when I got there, but the sunshine felt warm. It was a great day!
   

I stayed near the large alligator at Elm Lake because it was the first opportunity I had to monitor a large alligator basking close enough to use my thermal imager. So,
from 10:40am to 2:10pm I shot images when I thought about it (meanwhile, I was also watching other alligators and wildlife, and interpreting for park visitors). The images
below are screen shots of data I got from the images by using their proprietary software. Although the alligator did warm up during the day, I was hoping to see its temperature
change at a different rate than the surrounding area.  Looking at it this way may not give me the results I expected, since I can only see external temperature.  Of course
its skin and external surfaces would get warmer from the sun, and if the alligator is exchanging cooler internal blood for warmed external blood, the rate of flow wouldn't
show me much difference from the environment.  What I probably need to do is monitor the opposite condition--watching a warm alligator as the area around it gets cooler.
I would expect an alligator to cool down slower (or not at all) relative to the surfaces around it.  This depends on the size and mass of the alligator, and whatever it is lying upon.
Oh, well...I'll try again later.
   

02/04/2024  An update on the mom gator and her pod that I've been watching on the Spillway Trail since last August (2023). The higher water combined
with the warmer day to bring out more babies. Her story from last year can be found mostly on this page. When I passed by her spot about 9:00am, I could hear few
babies chirping, and could find a few near her.  One is near her head in the first 3 images below.  When I returned about 12:50pm there was a pile of babies on a floating
log while the mom was basking on the floating vegetation behind them. This was South of the Spillway Trail.
   

I spent a few hours near the pod. Most of the babies stayed on the log, although the configuration of the pile changed as the babies on the bottom tried to get on top, or
as new ones left the water to add to the pile. Park visitors often ask how many there are, and it's always hard to count them in a situation like this--even with binoculars.
Another question I've heard often since last year is if all of those babies "belong" to that mother gator.  It is most likely that they are, although-as the summer progressed,
and the mother and pod occupied the only open puddle within a few hundred yard-I considered that other small gators might have followed the water and been adopted
by that mother gator. It was still most likely that they were hers, from possibly 3 different hatchings (a year apart). BUT--that changed sometime late November, 2023 when
5 babies that were hatched in our Nature Center were released to join this pod. So, if nothing has happened to them, 5 of those babies are certainly NOT hers.  
Oh, and to get the best count of a pile of alligators, I have to take a clear image, then go home and try to count their heads.  The first 2 images below demonstrate this.
In the second I've marked twenty-four (24) babies!  I certainly couldn't see all of them while I was out there!
   

There are various reasons and sources for the baby gators that are hatched in the Nature Center.  Whatever the circumstances, the babies hatched in there are protected
better than the wild babies for at least a year, before they are released. If the release is to a mother alligator, I see are two amazing things.  First, is that the mother-guided
by the particular sounds of the chirps-is immediately protective of the new babies and guides them to her.  But I'm more surprised by the babies accepting the mother.
They have never been outside for their entire year of life; yet they recognize the mother alligator, chirp for her, and swim towards her! How do they recognize her
as protection, and not as a predator to be feared?  Another interesting sight was on the North side of the Spillway Trail, where the babies had been sheltering for a few
months last summer.  The first two images below are thermal views of the mom gator and pod.
The last image below was taken on this day 02/04/2024.  An alligator was basking near the remnants of the nest, while everything else is submerged.
   

At the beginning of the summer, an alligator had built a nest there.  At the end, the pod had been living near the nest (because of the water in front of it) until they moved
 across to where they are now.  The series of images below show the nest in June, and then the area a various times through the year.
   

The water shrunk to a puddle, then to nothing. I'm sure the mother was digging under the tree at the farther side. I'd really thought that she'd stay there. But when
the water started to come back, the mother and the pod moved across the trail to the South side of the trail--into Pilant Slough.  The arrow in each picture shows the nest.
   

02/25/2024  Brazos Bend State Park  A beautiful day, where there were many things to see (as usual).  This post will briefly cover some of the items
I went East along the Spillway trail, where I saw a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) catch a small Lesser Siren (Siren intermedia). But it lost the Siren when it dropped the
 amphibian to stab it again. The siren must have slid into the plant mat, because the Heron struggled to pull it out, but failed. When I got to the mother alligator and pod,
another large alligator was basking on the trail about 10 yards from her.  At one point, I counted 14 baby alligators on that stump, and 10 or more moving among the plants
 on the mat past the mother, as well as about 3 on a small stick to the left.  
   

I stayed near the pod for about 4 hours.  The babies moved in and out of cover, while the mother eventually moved onto the floating mat. The gator on the trail started
gaping--probably a "thermal gape" and I expected it to return to the water. But, while it did move closer to the water, it didn't go in while I was still there. At 10am, some
visitors that had just left me shouted "EAGLE" and a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) was flying right above me! I'd been there at least 90 minutes when I noticed a
 darker mass in the snarled vegetation in front of me. An American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) was resting in the cover! How long had that been there? It slowly moved
off into thicker brush.
   

If you'd like to know more about the park follow these links:

Brazos Bend State Park   The main page.

Brazos Bend State Park Volunteer's Page  The volunteer's main page.
 

And, this page shows alligators at the park, on land, near various landmarks at the park.

           Go back to my main alligator page, Alligators

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           Go back to the RICKUBISCAM page.
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