Management Implications of an Adult Female Alligator Telemetry Study

From June 1981 to June 1982, a radio-telemetry study was conducted on 9 adult (≥1.8 m) female alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) within a cypress (Taxodium distichum) lake in northwestern Louisiana. Minimum home range size varied from 0.8 to 256 ha (x = 56 ha) while average daily distance traveled varied from 2.3 to 238 m (x =20 m). Data collected through additional monitoring throughout 3 nesting and hunting seasons indicated a low nesting effort averaging 28% per year, a low degree of visibility during night counts, and a low proportion of transmittered females were harvested (10%).