The Alligator

1
The Alligators Allure Changing Conceptions of a
Charismatic Carnivore Mark V. Barrow, Jr.,
Department of History, Virginia Tech
Cont. With the rise of the tourist trade in the
late nineteenth century, the alligator came to be
closely associated with Florida, the state where
it was most abundant. According to one travel
writer, the species represented the star and
leading attraction of the river excursions
popular with the states early tourists. With
the adoption of the automobile, numerous roadside
attractionsdubbed alligator farmsalso began
featuring the creature. The third conceptual
filter through which Americans have tended to
view the alligator is as a valuable commodity.
As with other New World flora and fauna,
Euroamericans sought to turn a profit from the
alligator. Not until the second half of the
nineteenth century, however, did it face intense
market pressure from the hide and souvenir trade.
In 1893, a federal official estimated that 2.5
million hides had been shipped out of Florida
since 1880. Demand for alligator leather soared
with the growth in affluence following the Second
World War. Relentless commodification of the
alligator led to calls for its protection. In
1961, Florida officials closed the hunting season
for the species. Yet, poachers continued to take
illegally obtained alligator hides across state
lines, where they could be sold without fear of
prosecution. After concerned conservationists
called for federal protection of the increasingly
beleaguered reptile, it became one of the first
species listed under Endangered Species Acts of
1969 and 1973. With improved protection, its
population quickly rebounded. The growing
gator population quick ran up against Floridas
expanding human population. By 1975, the Florida
Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission was
responding to about 5,000 complaints per year
involving nuisance alligators that had ventured
too close to humans. In 1978, the state of
Florida began a more aggressive control program
using private contractors to kill nuisance
alligators. Today, it appears that the species
can only continue to survive in the wild
through intense management of the alligators that
regularly wander into the thousands of lakes,
ponds, and backyard pools that dot the
landscape. Conclusion An examination of changing
conceptions of the alligator reveals not only a
longstanding fear of the beast but also a
yearning to tame or domesticate it.
Euroamericans have long sought to manipulate and
control the natural world. As Floridas human
population continues expanding, the alligator has
been confined to ever-smaller wetland plots, and
individuals transgressing the artificial
boundaries erected to confine it face swift
destruction. The American alligator has thus
become a kind of semi-domesticated reptile
subjected to intense human surveillance,
manipulation, and intervention.
Symbol of the Landscape
Fierce Predator

Abstract
Since first encountering the American alligator
in the early sixteenth century, Euroamericans
have struggled to get a handle on this large
reptile. Through an examination of numerous
written and visual sources, I conclude that we
have thought about this charismatic species in
myriad ways as a fearsome predator, a symbol of
the landscape, a valuable commodity, an
endangered species, and a dangerous nuisance.
With increasingly intense management, the
alligator has become semi-domesticated, yet
another example of nature on a leash, to use
the filmmaker John Sayless suggestive phrase.
Introduction The American alligator (known to
scientists as Alligator mississipiensis) is a
large, toothy reptile that can grow to 16 feet or
more. Although it inhabits the freshwater
swamps, marshes, rivers, and lakes throughout
much of the southeastern United States, the
species is most abundant in the states of Florida
and Louisiana. As a member of the order
Crocodilia, the alligator belongs to a 230
million-year-old lineage that survived the
Cretaceous mass extinction, when 85 percent of
the earths species perished. As a semi-aquatic
creature, the alligator moves freely between
water and land. And as a large, top-level
carnivore, the creature not only projects a
menacing presence but also occasionally consumes
humans and their pets. Given these many boundary
crossingschronological, geographical, and
gastronomicalAmericans have long struggled to
get a precise handle on this charismatic reptile,
and they have thought about it in various
(sometimes contradictory) ways. My research
explores how Euroamericans have conceptualized
the alligator, a species that serves as a
repository of meaning, to borrow historian
Richard Whites evocative phrase. Working on the
boundaries between environmental history, history
of science, and cultural history, I have sought
to unpack the tangled layers of perception
associated with this multivalent vestige of the
prehistoric era. Discussion One of the oldest
ways of thinking about the alligator is as a
fierce predator. European explorers who first
encountered the species saw it as a local variant
of the Nile crocodile, which had long been seen
as an evil, voracious beast notorious for
consuming humans. While naturalists have
struggled to debunk the notion that the alligator
shares the crocodiles aggressive nature, the
image remains vivid in the minds of most who
encounter the species. Shading into the
perception of the alligator as a charismatic
carnivore is the related view of the species as a
symbol of the landscape it inhabits. In the
sixteenth century, the reptile quickly became one
of the standard icons used to represent the newly
discovered Americas.
William Bartrams sketch of the alligator, ca
1774. On the eve of the American Revolution,
Bartram traveled extensively throughout the
sparsely settled southeastern North America. His
popular and influential book, Travels (1791),
featured a chilling account of alligators
attacking his boat. From Joseph Ewan, ed.,
William Bartram Botanical and Zoological
Drawings, 1756-1788 (1968).
Alligator Brand citrus label, ca. 1930s. Florida
citrus growers and packers promoted brand loyalty
through colorful labels attached to wooden crates
containing their fruit. This striking label
depicts an apparently tame (though still vaguely
menacing) alligator standing on two legs and
serving a tray of oranges
Facts about Florida, 1896. A promotional
brochure from the Clyde Steamship Company,
featuring a racist depiction of an
African-American sitting astride an alligator.
More common were images depicting alligators
attacking African-Americans, which remained
widely available until the 1950s. Courtesy of
Dean Rodina at www.gothicstamps.com.
Albert the Alligator, ca. 2000. The idea of the
alligator as symbol of the Florida landscape
gained further reinforcement when the University
of Florida adopted the reptile as its official
mascot in 1908. From C. C. Lockwood, The
Alligator Book (2002).
Dangerous Nuisance
Valuable Commodity
Endangered Species
Article on the decline of the alligator, 1967.
Archie Carr wrote this article during a campaign
for stronger federal protection for the
alligator, which seemed to be near extinction.
From Archie Carr, Alligators Dragons in
Distress, National Geographic (1967).
Tanned alligator hides, ca. 1900. The bottom of
the hide (left) produces a supple leather used in
purses, wallets, belts, shoes and other expensive
goods beginning in the second half of the
nineteenth century. From Charles H. Stevenson,
The Utilization of the Skins of Aquatic
Animals, 1904.
Alligator wrestling at Gatorland, ca. 2000. Soon
after alligator farms opened in the late
nineteenth century, they began featuring an act
dubbed alligator wrestling. From C. C.
Lockwood, The Alligator Book (2002).
Newspaper article featuring nuisance alligators,
2000. Alligators frequently wander onto
Floridas golf courses, swimming pools, ponds,
and lakes, and when they do, residents usually
call a hotline set up to report them. In 2005,
Florida officials received 18,000 nuisance
alligator calls, and trappers killed more than
7,700 alligators. The sale of alligator hides
and meat pays for the program. From Gainesville
Sun, August 10, 2000.
Alligators at dusk, Paynes Prairie, Alachua
Country, Florida, 1990. With federal protection
in the 1960s and 1970s, the Florida alligator
population quickly recovered, as depicted in this
striking photograph featuring dozens of
alligators whose eyes are reflecting light from
the camera flash. From John Moran, Journal of
Light The Visual Diary of a Florida Nature
Photographer (2004).
The St. Augustine Alligator Farm, 1910. This
panoramic photograph depicts one of the earliest
alligator farms established in the United States.
By 1930 more than a dozen of these popular
tourist attractions had sprouted across Florida.
From Library of Congress, American Memory
Project website, http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/index
.html.