>> [Guitar plays] >> [Laughs] So this is a little American alligator, it's not a crocodile.

Okay, here we go.

Here's a couple more.

In fact, one of them just flew.

If you have water in the Lowcountry, you're gonna have alligators.

I just counted 38 right behind me.

In fact, all these little bumps, they're eyes and snouts, because just a little bit of each of these alligators is above water.

And one of the really good ways to estimate size is the distance between the eyes and the nose in inches is roughly equivalent to the length of that alligator in feet.

So these look kind of small from here, but these are 7-, 8-, 9-foot alligators, and some of them may be even a little bit bigger than that.

Look at the number of alligators in here!

I mean, they are really packed together in here.

You can see sort of swirls where their tail drags.

I think they're moving in here probably to feed.

So the water level's lower, and there's a lot to eat in here right now.

So sometimes they stack up.

This is actually an impoundment.

And this used to be for growing rice.

Now it's really good for management of waterfowl and all sorts of things.

Of course, alligators love it.

It's full of small fish and birds and all sorts of things that alligators like to eat.

Now, first of all, it's important to realize that these are alligators.

They're not crocodiles.

And so much of the time, I hear people say, "That's a crocodile."

Not a crocodile here in the Lowcountry.

We don't have them.

The native species is the American alligator.

Alligators can live in both fresh and salt water.

They spend the majority of their time in fresh water, but they do like to go into salt water to feed on all sorts of things like blue crabs and mullet and things like that.

Alligators can be dangerous.

If you feed an alligator, if you get too close to it, you could put yourself in harm's way.

In fact, as we like to say, "a fed gator is a dead gator."

If alligators are fed, they may start to associate people with food.

That doesn't mean that they're going to eat somebody, but it does mean that they may expect you to throw food in the water, and that creates a really dangerous situation, not only for yourself but for somebody else in the future.

I love the fact that we share the Lowcountry with alligators.

I mean, they're fascinating animals.

And if we're careful with them, don't get too close, don't feed them, then we can live in harmony with them, no problem.

Let's take a look at the Lowcountry's largest reptile.

And a little bit later on, we're going to show you something that as far as we know has never been filmed.

So pretty much any freshwater pond in the Lowcountry is gonna have alligators.

And this is a fishing pond, and not only does this have alligators, but it has a bunch of babies right here.

And I'm staying away from them a little bit, and I'm also keeping a real close eye on mom.

She's right over.

Because if I was to pick up one of these babies or if she thinks they're in real danger, she might come racing over to protect her babies.

So these babies would have hatched out in the late summer or fall.

And since it's late spring, these are about six months old.

They're about 10, 11, 12 inches long, somewhere in there.

Alligators typically grow about a foot a year.

So, the problem is, once they reach a certain size, they slow way down, so you can't really tell how old an alligator is just by measuring it.

But at least when they're young, you can get a pretty good idea.

So these are six months old.

Next year they'll be about twice this length, probably.

You can hear the babies calling and mom has come over, so I think it's time for us to go.

But, you know, alligators don't stay small for long, and I see some suspicious swirling in this trap.

And I'll bet there's an alligator in it.

I've been trying to trap chicken turtles and slider turtles, but there's something a little bigger in this trap.

Let's see what we got.

There's some turtles, and just as I suspected... [Chuckles] Oh, this is going to be interesting.

So, not a huge alligator, but you can see he's got pretty big teeth.

And I'm gonna be careful getting him out of here.

The sardine smell is really bad.

We use sardines to trap turtles, and these sardines have been in the trap for a little while.

Now, the first order of business is to get some of these turtles out of here.

I'm looking for chicken turtles, but these look like they're slider turtles.

Yeah, that's a big female slider.

She's way too big.

It would take a really big alligator to eat a turtle this big.

So this one's no problem.

Let him slide back in.

More slider turtles.

Here's a young one.

A couple more young ones.

Let me pull these sardines out of here.

[Sniffs] Okay, now for the business end.

See if I can slide this guy down.

Even alligators this size can really bite hard.

So I'm being careful about staying away from the mouth.

There we go.

This is really a fun size.

But, again, it's big enough to bite you pretty hard.

So, get its feet untangled.

[Alligator chirping] And you can see it's making kind of a yelping noise.

And babies make that, but even medium-size alligators like this do as well.

Looks like this animal has been marked.

Looks like the scutes have been cut.

So I'm gonna have to check the -- This could be an injury, too, from another alligator.

I'll look closely and check.

That looks like it may be a bite from another alligator.

Sometimes alligators will kill each other, and big ones will definitely eat smaller ones.

Now, you can see this has very impressive teeth even at this size.

And boy, look at that wonderful eye.

That's got that nocturnal eye with the vertical pupil.

Even at this size, these are very accomplished predators.

Frogs, small turtles, fish, even little snakes.

In fact, they'll grab pretty much anything that they can catch and subdue and swallow.

They can also tear smaller things apart so they can gulp them down.

You notice in the inside of the mouth, the mouth is closed with sort of a glottis-type thing that keeps the mouth shut while they're underwater.

Keeps them from taking in a lot of excess water.

Now, at this size, mom is no longer in the picture.

Mother alligators will protect their young, sometimes for a year and a half or so.

This alligator is much older than that.

I would suggest that this thing is probably four years old or something like that.

Could be a little bit younger than that.

You know, I'm looking at this tail.

This is not a mark.

I think this is an injury.

'Cause I noticed the underside of the tail is pretty beat up, too.

So it looks like maybe this one got attacked by something when it was very young or it may be attacked by another alligator.

Now, this guy's pretty tired 'cause he's been in this turtle trap and I'm sure he's been trying to get out, probably ever since last night.

Now, a couple things I notice on this are look at the leeches!

This is a freshwater wetland, and it has a lot of leeches in it.

And leeches will attach to alligators.

Sometimes they're even inside.

In fact, I can see some inside the mouth.

But here's a leech right here.

And so these attach to things.

They, of course, suck blood.

And I'm not gonna let this guy stick on my hand too long.

[Chuckles] Look at these bony plates on the back.

They're called osteoderms.

And these osteoderms are very sharp on the neck and very raised.

Probably provides some protection.

But also these things are really good at helping the animal to warm up.

They can bask, and these things help to disperse heat to the rest of the body.

Boy, they're just beautifully adapted for what they do.

I think sometimes when we think of alligators, we think of little tiny babies or we think of great big ones.

This is kind of the intermediate phase.

Probably not quite a teenage alligator, but I think this guy's had kind of a rough night.

Let's put him in and let him get on back to where he wants to go.

[Chuckles] As I can see, he's still got a little bit of... And there he goes!

[Chuckles] If you live in the Lowcountry, then alligators are part of the story.

The trick is to figure out a way that we can live alongside alligators with a minimal amount of conflicts.

Wildlife biologist Tom Murphy has been doing some research that suggests that we can condition alligators to stay away from people.

Tom, welcome.

Good to have you here.

Tell us a little bit about the research you're doing.

>> Well, basically, we were looking at alligator behavior and how they can habituate to the close approach of people.

What we want to do is see if we can reduce that level of contact between humans and alligators.

And what we've been doing is capturing and tagging and then releasing them right back to the same pond and look at the difference in the behavior before we tagged them, before we caught them, and after we've released them.

>> And so far you've been pretty happy with your results.

I mean, this has kind of stuck.

They're remembering, right?

>> Yeah, we're seeing the average distance they would tolerate an approach would be about 23 yards.

After we tag them, that jumps to over 60 yards.

>> And that's more what we want.

>> And that's more what a wild alligator would do in response to the approach of a human, the unconditioned alligator.

>> So we're going to catch an alligator.

How are we going to do it?

>> Well, we're going to use these baited sets.

The alligator has to come through the snare to get to the road kill squirrel.

>> It's a nice choice for baits.

>> Well, yeah, it's recycling.

And that releases the surgical tubing which allows the snare to be snugged around the alligator's neck.

>> So, obviously there's no alligator in this one.

Can I set this one off?

>> You can.

>> All right, let's give this a try.

Oh, yeah!

So it pulls that thing tight around the alligator's neck and it swims off with the snare, and then it can just kind of swim around in the pond around it.

>> Yeah.

You can see right now that the snare is all the way closed down just from the release of the surgical tubing.

>> Okay, well, let's go see if we caught an alligator.

>> We'll check some other ones.

Hey, George, did you check the snare yet?

>> Yes, I did, Tom.

>> Do any good?

>> Well, the trap's been tripped so it appears we've got one?

>> All right.

>> Check it out, Tony.

>> It feels like there's something on the end of this, but no pull-back yet.

Oh, there we go.

Yeah, there's... [Chuckles] there's definitely an alligator on the end of this.

Look at this.

A nice, big animal, for sure.

There's a chance we're gonna get her head stuck.

There it is.

>> There we go.

>> All right, there's a pink tag on her tail, so this is, in fact, a female.

And she's been captured before.

>> Okay, she's putting a lot of tension on this, so she obviously wants to get back in the water.

>> Yeah, that's her natural instinct.

>> And the thing you want to do with an alligator is you want to get the mouth shut.

>> Yeah, even after you get the mouth shut, still, the head is the more dangerous part of the animal, 'cause it's solid bone.

Looking pretty good.

>> Then we cover the eyes.

Next thing these guys are doing is putting rubber bands around it, and that will hold the mouth shut.

And notice the towel over the eyes, which is going to keep the animal from being overly stressed.

So this is kind of a stressful thing for alligators, but it's necessary to capture them and get the information that we need.

>> What's the number on that tail tag, Tony?

>> It is... 153 -- and it's a pink tag, which I know means it's a female.

Blue tags for the males, pink tags for the females, which I thought was cute.

>> This would be an animal that we captured -- probably the second animal, or at least the second female that we captured here on Spring Island.

And she was captured back in 2009.

>> Oh, wow!

So it's been a long time.

So you may have seen this animal, but you haven't caught it in a long time.

Okay, so I know we have some work to do so we can get this animal back in.

What is the rest of the protocol?

What do we need to do?

>> We're going to do a series of measurements.

What you got, George?

>> 8'1.5".

>> So she's only grown a half an inch in five years.

So this is probably as large as this female is going to get.

>> You'll hear people say that alligators have indeterminate growth, meaning they grow their entire lives, but in reality, the growth rate slows way down, doesn't it?

>> Yeah.

>> I mean, you look at an alligator, they're just so heavy.

I mean, they're really heavy-duty -- big bones and heavy bones, and then they've got all this armor on the back, these osteoderms, these bony scutes that are up on top.

The other thing to notice is, if you look at the feet on an alligator, of course there's some webbing there for swimming, but the feet and the claws are not very strong.

If this was a big monitor lizard or something like that, the claws are very strong and very much a weapon.

With alligators, they just don't -- I mean, they're of course important for climbing, but they just don't look like they're as formidable.

>> They're not formidable, but they are climbers.

They're like great big lizards.

>> Yeah, I know.

I saw an alligator climb a chain link fence one time.

>> Yeah, usually, they'll get into the corner and climb up on the corner and then just flop over the top.

>> Yeah, they're very athletic.

And, of course, the eye reflects light, so if we were to shine a light on this animal in the dark, it would reflect back a beautiful bright red color, bright orange color.

>> What the alligator is actually doing is, that light will go past the rods and cones and hits that tapetum membrane in the back.

Comes back across the rods and cones and is used a second time, so they're actually using the light twice.

And what we've done, actually, when we were doing a lot of night surveys, Tony, we wanted to know what percentage of the animals we saw if they're on the surface.

So we actually walked around them with a light, and we could see eye shine 330 degrees around that alligator.

So the only place we're not getting eye shine is this 30 degrees back here.

That means this animal probably can see 330 degrees around.

>> So that means sneaking up on an alligator is a difficult thing to do.

You're going first?

So let me get this right.

You're going first.

I want to make sure we get this correct.

You go first, then I go, and then George pulls the rubber bands off.

>> Yeah, he'll probably pull on it and get her to back up, and once she starts backing up and we're sure she's going to make it to the water, then we'll pull our hands off.

>> Just wanted to make sure that I get the protocol right.

>> Take the towel with you, Tony.

>> I'm gone.

>> All right, and I am gone.

She looks good.

She looks like she's doing fine.

>> Ready to pull it.

All right.

>> All right, and boy, the mouth came open.

So, that was awesome.

I just like how healthy that animal looked and how it jumped right back in the water.

>> Very alert.

The real big ones sometimes can get pretty logy, and you absolutely have to get them back into the water, but she looked real good.

>> So you may not see this animal for a while, right?

>> Yeah, on average, when we tag an adult, we don't see it again for 84 days.

So we're not sure where they go.

We think they may go to the winter dens, and they just hide out for a while.

>> So we got some good data from this animal.

>> I think we did.

>> All right.

Okay, so we're going to try a different technique to see if we can catch another animal, right?

>> Yeah, if animals are close enough to you, you can use a fishing technique or use a treble hook, not to pierce the hide but just to guide the animal in and tire it out so that you can get a snare on it.

>> I think that's the shot he wanted.

He still on?

All right.

He saw that noose, didn't he?

>> Yep.

>> Tony's got the rope.

>> I've got the rope.

Is he on good?

>> Oh, yeah.

>> All right.

>> Watch out for that hook.

It's still on there.

>> Where is the hook?

>> I don't know.

>> [Chuckles] I don't sit on the hook.

Let me get these back feet up off the ground.

[Alligator calling] >> We don't usually hear that sound out of an adult.

>> And, guys, to give you the idea, the hook is right there.

And it did not even penetrate.

There's not a hole or anything.

It just kind of grabs ahold of that skin and doesn't do any damage at all.

So let's put a...

Thank you very much.

That cold towel probably feels good.

Boy, this is a beautiful animal.

I mean, it still has some of that sort of juvenile pattern to it.

You know, some yellow spots and stuff on it.

>> 89 and 1/8.

>> How much?

>> 89 and 1/8.

>> So 89 and 1/8 inches long.

You notice that noise it's making and that's, you know, alligators vocalize.

Tom, it sounds almost like a residual juvenile call or something.

>> It's a call that's required for alligators because they live in a marsh and there's a lot of emergent vegetation so they can't see each other like a lot of the other crocodilians.

>> You want to make sure these rubber bands, you get the good rubber bands, don't you?

>> That's right.

>> So, Tom, we're right, this is an impoundment or a pond right on the edge of the marsh, so that's the perfect situation for alligators, isn't it?

>> Yeah, it really is.

They need to be in fresh water, but they can go out in the salt water periodically.

But then they have to come back to fresh water to get the salt balance back.

They don't have a functional salt gland.

>> Boy, they get their legs under them, and it's a completely different story.

>> Yeah, once they get up on their hind legs, they crook their tail... >> I can't believe... >> There's no stopping them.

>> Wow, let me get her legs back up underneath me.

This is not that big an alligator, but... >> Well, these actually are kind of interesting.

These are the quick, snappy size class.

>> Just take a wild guess, what does this animal weigh?

>> Uh... probably 125, 130 pounds.

So you're still out of your weight class, Tony.

>> [Chuckles] The other thing is, alligator muscle is a little stronger than people muscle, I know that.

>> Yeah, they don't have a lot of endurance, but they certainly have the punch to get started.

>> And that, I guess, is why we can work with these the way we can, because they tend to wear out very quickly and they get very tired and we don't give them a chance to really recharge until we let them go.

>> If you keep this animal up here more than 30 minutes, all of the sudden it's going to be green again.

>> And we don't want that.

We can get done well before that.

So these guys, while I'm sitting on the alligator, they're marking it, and so they're putting a tag on the tail scute, and this will allow them to not only recognize the animal if they catch it again, but also from a distance with binoculars.

And you had an animal that moved from Spring Island here to where?

>> Up to the Combahee River, up at Highway 17.

>> So how far was the movement?

>> That's 23 miles straight line.

>> And it was actually killed in an alligator hunt.

All right, so I guess... the next step is, we want to move this animal down the dike because we don't want to let it go right next to this water control structure, so we're going to carry it down and then release it like we released the other one, right?

And the mouth comes open.

Looks like it's back in the water.

I'm going to keep my eye over my shoulder.

But, guys, thank you so much.

Tom, George, this was wonderful.

I'm glad we caught two with two completely different methods.

So that was a lot of fun.

I've been lucky enough to see some really cool things in nature, but every now and then you see something that just absolutely blows your mind.

And what you're about to see is something that, as far as I know, has never been filmed in nature.

Let's go check it out.

Now, if you look right this way, there's an adult female alligator.

And actually it looks like she's maybe headed this way.

And if you look to my left, there's a den.

But what's really, really cool is right here.

And this is something that I've never seen before in my life.

This is a leucistic baby alligator.

It's just basking right here.

There's a couple others around.

Tell you what, I'm going to real carefully scoop this guy up.

[Baby alligator chirping] [Alligator hissing] And she's vocalizing a little bit.

And this is one of those things that you don't want to try, because if you get too close to a baby alligator, there's a chance that the mother may be very protective.

But this is an animal that, you notice there's a little bit of pigment here.

This is not amelanism, lack of dark pigment.

This is, I think, leucistic, which would mean it lacks most pigment.

And this is an animal that has some duckweed and stuff on the back of it, but as an adult, this thing I think will be completely ivory-colored, almost white, and it will grow to regular alligator size, which could be, if it's a female, 8 feet long or so; if it's a male, it could be over 10 feet.

Really, really rare and something you just don't see very often unless you've seen one in a zoo or something like that.

Now, baby alligators rely on mom for protection, like we talked about.

[Baby alligator chirping] I don't know if you can hear that, that vocalizing.

[Baby alligator chirps] The other thing to notice is, this animal has blue eyes.

So, if it was amelanistic, it would have red eyes because that's just lacking the black pigment.

I think I see another one.

Let's go check it out.

There's one right here on this log.

And I'm watching mom.

Right here.

And this one has some duckweed on it, too.

I'm going to pick this little guy up, but I'm going to really keep an eye on mom.

[Baby alligator chirping] And it's starting to vocalize.

I keep glancing over my shoulder at mom.

Obviously, you know, she's seven feet long or so and very protective.

And here's another one that I didn't even see.

It was right in front of me and I didn't even realize it.

These things actually are more cryptic on these light-colored leaves than I would have guessed.

But, you know, they look a little bit thin, but they've just...

I hear mom hissing over there.

They just came out of the den.

It's early in the year, so they probably haven't started feeding yet -- the water temperature is too cool.

Wow!

Just amazing little animals.

Again, this is something that you just are never going to see.

One in several million probably chance of one of these things hatching out.

Boy, the Lowcountry of South Carolina is amazing, and every now and then you get to see something really, really special like this.

Now, since this is such an incredibly rare event in nature, this South Carolina alligator research team is going to capture the mother and pull blood from her.

So what they can do is pull blood and they can get a sample that will give them genetic information, information on metals, and all sorts of just incredible stuff.

Now we think this is likely a simple recessive gene thing.

So, in other words, it's a mother and a father alligator that both carry a recessive gene, and then when they breed together, that is expressed.

So maybe a quarter of the offspring would be leucistic and the rest would look normal.

Then the mom will be released, unharmed.

The babies are going to be taken away.

This is a high-profile area and there's a concern that somebody might collect them and take them away.

And more than likely, even if they were to remain here and nobody found them, a great blue heron, raccoon, or some other predator would definitely get these.

So I think the best bet is to remove them from here.

So after they caught the mother, they were able to catch a couple normal looking hatchlings, so I thought it would be neat to compare the two.

So here's a normal.

This is normal coloration.

Wonderful cryptic pattern here.

And then we'll put it in with these others, and you see there's a big difference.

Now, remember, these are going to develop a much lighter kind of an ivory color as they grow, with just little bits of pigment left.

The Lowcountry South Carolina, you never know what you're going to see, but I'll tell you what, this is one in a million.