Odwc will subaward funds to southwestern adventist university for this project

The american alligator (alligator mississippiensis) reaches its northwestern-most distribution in the gulf coastal plain region of southeastern oklahoma. IT occurs in the red river and little river basins of mccurtain county, although occasional records exist for specimens seen elsewhere in the southeastern region of the state (arbour and bastarache 2006; heck 2006). With the nationwide recovery of alligators has come a reemerging, increasing interest in the species as a harvestable animal (e.g., georgia department of natural resources 2010; north carolina wildlife resources commission 2017) and even wider interest as watchable wildlife for non-game enthusiasts. Very little is known about the population status of alligators in southeastern oklahoma, despite their presence and significance in the area wetlands. Little is understood of the factors affecting reproductive success, and especially recruitment bottlenecks, to the subadult and adult population. In addition, a multi-disciplinary, science-supported plan in oklahoma is needed because of the past and present ways in which alligator management and harvest monitoring has developed and been coordinated nationally. To address these shortcomings, we propose to assess the population status and reproductive success of the alligator population at red slough wildlife management area (RSWMA). Population status will be evaluated using capture and visual surveys. Reproductive success will be examined by monitoring nests with cameras and visual surveys, as well as marking hatchlings combined, these approaches should facilitate the determination of population size, density, SEX ratios, size structure, body condition, and nest success. Long-term survival of hatchlings and recruitment rates of hatchlings and new entrants into the population will be difficult to assess with only two years of data collection, but our sampling and tagging efforts will provide the groundwork for future studies to accurately estimate these parameters.