By DIANTÉ MARIGNY
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com
On a breezy Friday morning, the South Padre Island Birding, Nature Center & Alligator Sanctuary employees stumbled across an alligator in a pond in front of their property. Not only did the 7-foot male gator not belong there, but it had a piece of an arrow lodged in its back.
The crew from the alligator sanctuary sprang into action.
“During the catch, he put up a good fight,” said Jacob Reinbolt, the center’s herpetologist. “Once we got him secured, he calmed down a little bit.”
After the catch, they called on their neighbors at Sea Turtle Inc., who brought materials and equipment over to help remove the shaft so that the open wound could heal. “The head of the arrow was likely embedded in the gator’s bone, and it wasn’t going to come out,” Reinbolt said.
During the process of removing the arrow, Reinbolt said the crew was “taken aback” because the gator was extremely calm during the process. “I never want to use drugs on an animal, so we didn’t put him down, we tried to keep it as non-invasive as possible, but even so, we still had to make incisions, and he hardly flinched the whole time….it was like he knew he was getting help.”
Under Texas Parks and Wildlife licensing, an alligator can only be held in captivity for 72 hours before it must be released, otherwise, it must stay in captivity or be put down. By Monday morning, the alligator had had time to heal and was released to an undisclosed area.
“Alligators have a remarkable ability to recover from traumatic injury,” Reinbolt said. “He is back in the wild where he belongs.”
After the rain event the area experienced in late March, Reinbolt said the freshwater contained by a berm behind the center was drained out, so the wild alligators that had been living there for decades essentially ran out of water overnight, causing them to spread out to seek more freshwater.
“Our facility sits right next to a water treatment plant that treats all the city’s water before it’s pumped back out into the bay. That water treatment plant has created a massive freshwater ecosystem along our boardwalk…you get a mix of saltwater ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems, and that freshwater is what makes it so special,” Reinbolt said. “The water treatment plant has created a home where the wild alligators can get access to freshwater as well. Those water treatment plants are the only reason we have wild alligators here at all.”
The center currently has about 30 gators in captivity, a number Reinbolt said isn’t something to brag about. “They don’t belong in captivity. They’re not pets. We strive to keep them wild,” he said. “If it was up to me, we wouldn’t have a single alligator in captivity in our facility, but as long people continue to feed them and do things like this, we’re going to continue to save them.”
Wendy Knight, CEO of Sea Turtle Inc., issued this statement on the teamwork it took to heal the alligator: “I hope that Sea Turtle Inc. and the Birding Center can continue to set an example of how to focus on a common goal and provide resources for the greater good of the animals of South Padre Island.”
Right now, the center is actively trying to restore the berm that held that freshwater in place so that the local wild alligators can live comfortably again. If you see an alligator, Reinbolt advises not to interact with it; instead, call their center at (956) 761-6801.
For more information on alligators in our area, the Alligator Sanctuary hosts educational talks every day at 11 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m.