When Hurricane Ike made landfall near Galveston, Texas on 13 September 2008, massive debris piles were formed onshore along coastal Louisiana and Texas. A live juvenile Alligator mississippiensis (American Alligator) was found on 28 September amongst debris on the beach at Padre Island National Seashore; this alligator had been marked (web tags and tail notches) and released in Johnson's Bayou, LA six weeks prior to the hurricane. We believe it was swept away from coastal Louisiana by the hurricane's storm surge and displaced some 489 km from its release site. To our knowledge, this is a record displacement for an American Alligator and demonstrates the resiliency of this species.
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1 December 2009
Long-Distance Displacement of a Juvenile Alligator by Hurricane Ike
Ruth M. Elsey,
Chelsea Aldrich
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