Tips to follow to avoid alligators during their mating season

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — For many people who are new to North Carolina, they are surprised to see alligators in the wild.

But just because you’ve never see one before doesn’t mean you should go near it.

“Obviously, Florida, Louisiana, those southern states have a lot more alligators than we do, but eastern North Carolina is the natural northern part of their home range,” NC Wildlife biologist Chris Kent said.

Despite what people may think, alligators are usually rather shy and scared of humans.

Kent works with alligators a lot and said this is the time of year for them to be most active.

“April, May, June is kind of their mating season, breeding season,” Kent said. “May and June is the peak of that, which means these animals are moving around the landscape a lot more and so therefore, we get a lot more busy with alligator calls.”

Kent said gators can and will live anywhere there is water and NC Wildlife will work with HOAs and neighborhoods to put up signs warning about them.

But he said people need to remember to treat alligators like any other wild animal and that starts with not feeding them.

“Any animal, whether its a deer, a bear, a squirrel, a fox, a coyote or an alligator, if people start feeding animals like that, then they quickly lose their fear of humans and they’ll start approaching people. That’s when it can create a dangerous situation and if we have a larger alligator, 8, 9, 10 plus feet long, people have been feeding and that animal no longer has fear of humans.”

According to Kent, alligator attacks are very rare in North Carolina, but the most common reason why someone was attacked was because they were either feeding or trying to catch a gator.

Kent added that NC Wildlife does not know exactly how many alligators there are in North Carolina, but that some of them are tagged to monitor their migration patterns and growth, while some females are tagged to track where they go to nest.