Gator Country: Book Review

 

Gator Country

by Rebecca Renner

I decided to read Gator Country, when I saw the title of the book. I lived in Miami, and Miami Beach, Coral Gables, and Broward County. I reminisced about Alligator Alley, and Alligator tourist stops. Most people don't come for the Everglades, and the alligators. They come for the tourist stop of the beautiful beaches, and palm trees. 

I didn't know the difference or care about the difference of an alligator and a crocodile. Do you know? I'll tell you. Alligator is more subdued and less aggressive than a crocodile. They also have rounded U -shaped snouts vs, Crocodiles have long and pointed, V-shaped snouts.

For years indigenous people and Afro-Americans lived in Florida. It wasn't till the turn of the 20th Century. The wealthy tried and did attempt to change and develop the land. Which is where we are today. The wealthy were in competition with the swamp people who lived here.  After 1920's land started to develop and change to become like towns and cities outside of Florida. They became resort towns, like Miami Beach.

 

Look up the names of towns in Florida, like Dade, Tamiami, developer named Flagler. the development has a rich history of Florida. 

 

The story of Gator Country that the large piece of the deep south stretching across Florida bay at the outflow of the Everglades, up the entire state of Florida, along the low country wetlands of Georgia to the Carolinas to touch Virginia, and to the west. From the Florida panhandle across Alabama, Mississippi, and its river delta, Louisiana, and the Gulf Coast of Texas down to the Mexican lagoons. The biodiversity hotspot that is the North America Coastal Plain and a nearby perfect overlay of the impoverished deep south. This is the kingdom of the American Alligator, where marshes swamps, and bayou harbor hundreds of endemic species of flora, and fauna where don't develop anywhere else in the world. Over the centuries, gator country has drawn the roughest of settlers. Before the invention of the air-conditioner only the hardiest survived there and the more stubborn bothered. Before the RR came, each small town was like an island in a sea of wilderness. Venture past the tree line and quite literally you were on your own. Since then, more and more people came to live against the land instead of with it creating and adversary of gator country itself. 

 

I am not a nature gal exploring the Everglades. But I remember alligator wrestling, and swamps. But never did go so far. as walking the many miles of swamps. The nature reservists can do that for me.  So, reading the book about the swamps and the muck in a book was better than personally experiencing it in real time. I was hoping the book wasn't just about the poaching, but also about the ecosystem, and climate change that is happening globally.  Gator Country does prove what is happening by poaching alligators will cause the imbalance of the ecosystem in Florida. Which causes problems in the swamps by the way, which is necessary, the mangroves, etc. It is already affecting the ecosystem in the Everglades(swamps). 

Gator Country, the author, Rebecca Renner and her travels into the Everglades, journey and investigating one sting of gator poaching.,

 Jeff Babauta ( he's real name). He has been a wildlife office. Where the story picks up is Jeff one last special job. He is almost ready to retire after almost 30 years. He changes his name, and his identity to catch a group of gator poachers by disguising himself as a dead-beat poacher. What he has to go through and hide his identity for that last Harrah. What is at stake to protect the wildlife. Each chapter is either Rebecca and Jeff's story.  

For Jeff to set up a trap, and a sting. He has to set up a alligator farm. He starts slow and starts calling contacts to purchase eggs, and alligators. He then is tutored by one of the poachers to catch alligators and how to incubate the eggs. Which was interesting in an amateurish way. 

What is interesting Jeff starts to befriend and care for the baby alligators once they hatch. Me who doesn't care or never thought of wildlife start to care about these alligators! 🤣l! 

Why, I never did, I have no idea. The author brought them up close and personal for you to care about them. Ok, they are not fuzzy, fluffy and cute. But they are part of our world. We should care about them. Not to steal eggs and make alligator trophies of keyrings. The alligators used to be close to extinction because of the excess killing of them. But, since the 1960's the number has grown back since the 1980's because of protection laws. Just because we have a large number now doesn't mean their numbers will stay consistent. 

What bothered me all the money put in to capturing the poachers for a small amount of alligator eggs. Didn't seem like it was worth the time, and money. There didn't seem to be any accountability. The book didn't make me feel satisfied that the stings were making a difference. Instead, Jeff wanted to give them leniency.  The poachers' children what happens to them? They should have thought about that before they did the crime. The poachers are going to continue, and other people will get in on the act. Because the punishment is a joke. 

In Florida you must carry a license to poach a certain number of eggs, and alligators. Sunshine Alligator Farm where Jeff was staking out produced 13,000 eggs from the swamp each year. 

 So many poachers cross state lines to sell alligators, and their eggs. For a small number of criminals. Which the author doesn't see as criminals. She feels sorry for them. I have a different perspective. Most likely because I don't live in the swamp land. What can I say I'm a bleeding heart. I now have a different perspective of even alligators. It seems Rebecca feels sorry for the poachers. They have no other way to survive. This is their livelihood. I don't know the answer, But the punishment is a joke.

I personally didn't feel satisfied about reading the book. There were no solutions brought up.  If there was perhaps, I would feel differently about the book. Though the book felt like I was reading a novel.