Area Wildlife Gets Second Chance
THE BEAUMONT ENTERPRISE
Thrashing and twisting, the 6-foot alligator obviously didn’t want to leave the muddy pond even as workers taped its mouth shut and held it down to tie its arms and legs behind its back. For this unhappy and hissing alligator, though, it was one step closer to being back home in the marsh.
When Hurricane Ike barreled through Sept. 13, its surge inundated local freshwater marshes with Gulf of Mexico saltwater. The saltwater killed plants dependent on freshwater and left animals homeless, said Monique Slaughter, a natural resource biologist with the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area.
Gary Saurage of Gator Country caught about 30 alligators near Texas 73 in the days after Ike hit and kept them in an available pond at his attraction near FM 365 and Interstate 10.
“We didn’t save all of them,” Saurage said of the lost and irritated gators he tried to get to after Ike hit.
