Over Memorial Day weekend, three large alligators caused a stir after they were spotted at the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge.
The gators, which were reported to have been 9 to 10 feet long, were photographed by two wildlife photographers who said it was their first alligator sighting.
Within the last year, alligators have been reportedly seen in other North Texas waters: the Trinity River, Eagle Mountain Lake, Lake Lewisville and Lake Worth.
That’s why a reader asked Curious Texas: “What’s the alligator situation in Texas?”
Some North Texans may be surprised to know that there are plenty of alligators living in Texas, said Jon Warner, alligator program leader at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
“Alligators have been a part of the landscape,” he said. “Texas is the western range limit for the species in North America, so they’ve always been there.”
Tracking the gator population isn’t easy because they tend to be shy creatures, Warner said, but he estimates that roughly 400,000 to 500,000 alligators live across the entire state, with the bulk of that population concentrated in parts of South, East and southeast Texas.
Most Texans who live near or around the state’s swamps or marshes are used to seeing alligators, Warner said. Warner said that in Port Arthur, where he works, he sees at least one alligator every day.
Alligator sightings aren’t as frequent in North Texas, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t in D-FW. In fact, they’re native to the area, said DFW Herpetological Society president Mark Pyle.
“When everybody sees or hears about an alligator in North Texas, all the alarm bells go off; everybody panics and freaks out,” Pyle said. “Little do they know that we’re definitely within the historic range of alligators. There’s nothing abnormal about finding an alligator here in the lakes in North Texas.”
Robert Denkhaus, director of the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge, said he believes the alligator sightings have increased recently because people are spending more time outdoors.
He also said he believes gators have become more comfortable living in an urban area.
“We have this greater understanding and appreciation of them, and I think the alligators have learned that they do not have to be completely hidden,” Denkhaus said. “So they are sighted more frequently without any kind of negative blowback on the gator itself.”
Warner and Denkhaus both said the best way to avoid any issues with alligators is to never feed them. When an alligator is fed, they will continue to come back to the surface for more food, Warner and Denkhaus said.
The most common situation of feeding alligators is when people clean their fish and leave remains on the shore.
“A gator that is habituated to people like that, that’s a gator that’s going to have to be killed,” Denkhaus said. “And so it’s not good from either side of the equation.”
Warner said anyone who sees alligators in North Texas should remember that they’re shy creatures and that harassing or bothering them will cause problems.
Most importantly, he wants people to know that they have and always will be part of the Texas landscape.
“I certainly understand that for someone moving from out of state, maybe you’d have no idea that alligators exist in your part of the world,” he said. “There’s always been a healthy population here for the most part, and that includes Dallas-Fort Worth.”
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