Weather leaves animals guessing too

Published 6:10 am Sunday, February 5, 2017

You are probably as perplexed as I am about the weather.

One day it’s cold, next day it’s hot.

I know how I am doing with the steady weather changes.

How do you think the animals, reptiles and birds are coping?

Wednesday there were birds flying all around my back yard and I had a couple of robins in the front yard. Early Thursday morning I only saw three doves and they were hunkered together in a small tree.

Gulf Coast Bird Club member Mohamed El-Mogazi said with the type of weather we are now having, “there tends to be more movement of the birds. The cold weather will sometimes push them a little more south than normal (and vice versa with the warm weather in the winter time).”

He added that birds tend to congregate more with the changing of the weather.

What about the alligators, those cold blooded creatures that cover up in a hole during the winter time and spend a good bit of time out of the water when its warmer? With the weather we are having, they have to be going from one extreme to another.

If you’ve been in the marsh lately you have probably seen numerous gators on banks taking in the sun during our 70-degree weather and then, when it’s been in the 40s and below, you will not see them.

Local Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist Kori Legleu said, “That’s typical for this type of weather, but not exactly for this time of the year. You’ll see them sunning in the warm weather and then when it gets cold they will burrow into a hole.”

She added that the gators are more active when its warmer and that “sometimes they will turn up in places not necessarily convenient for people, like in a yard, in a swimming pool or a fish pond. On warm days you’ll see them around just about any waterway.”

She added that heavy rainfall will also have an alligator looking for more suitable habitat.

The LDWF estimates that the wild alligator population in the state is approaching 2 million with another 300,000 on alligator farms. A department report on gators also noted that these reptiles (the largest in North America) can run up to 35 mph for a short distance on land.

The LDWF has an excellent series on the alligator at its website (www.wlf.Louisiana.gov).

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In other alligator news, the Southwest Louisiana National Wildlife Refuge Complex is taking applications from experienced Louisiana alligator hunters to fill alligator hunting permits for Sabine, Lacassine and Cameron Prairie National Wildlife refuges for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 hunt seasons.

The applications will be taken until March 3 and a lottery draw will be held on March 8 to determine which hunters and alternates will hunt which of the three sites for the three years.

More information can be obtained at the Cameron Prairie NWR headquarters on La. 27 South.