National Geographic: Realm of the Alligator (1987) Movie Script
This is a place of unseen danger
and subtle beauty.
It is a mysterious swamp called
"Okefenokee"...
the realm of the Alligator.
Okefenokee...
a forbidding place once
thought to harbor deadly diseases.
It sheltered fugitives
and inspired fear and superstition.
Today Okefenokee Swamp is a
well-know wildlife refuge.
But even for people like
biologist-photographer.
Dr. John Paling,
it is not entirely welcoming.
"Whenever I go back to Okefenokee now,
I've got mixed feelings about it".
From the air when you go across it,
it looks just so beautiful
and so serene and so natural
and so appealing.
And yet it can be a place
of such contrasts
that it seems almost as if man was never
intended to be there for long.
Okefenokee Swamp is a
A mosaic of islands, forest, marshes,
and open water.
It's famed for its alligators
and as the home of Pogo,
The comic-strip possum.
Although it overlaps
the Florida state line,
most of Okefenokee lies
in southeastern Georgia.
Okefenokee's population
of Seminole Indians
was driven out in the 1830s.
It was soon infiltrated
by white settlers called "swampers."
By the 1930s the swampers
were well established here,
Showing off alligator nests and eggs
for visiting photographers.
The swampers were a breed apart.
Many had few needs or
interests outside Okefenokee.
Those who knew them admired their
simplicity and self-reliance.
Soon after the turn of the century,
virgin stands of cypress brought
an invasion to the swamp.
This and earlier schemes
to build a ship canal
through the swamp and even to drain it
threatened to destroy Okefenokee.
But much of Okefenokee's prime timber
was cleared in less than 20 years.
Soon the swampers were alone again.
In 1937, Okefenokee was declared
a national wildlife refuge.
The human residents would
eventually leave.
One old-timer said,
we have the swamp and that's good.
But the swampers are all gone.
It's just a shame we can't have both.
More than fifty years
after they were abandoned,
relics of the old logging camps
still can be found.
Now deep in regrowing forest,
they're objects of curiosity
for biologists like
Kent Vliet and John Paling.
This is an old train.
Oh, this is?
The engine was up front...
and there would be water
in this old cylinder.
After working here for several seasons
Paling, born in England,
has become intimately familiar
with this Georgia swamp.
And there's something even more
dramatic over here.
Come and have a guess sat this.
What do you make of this?
That's some sort of a chassis.
Right.
Is that what they carried the logs on?
Nope. Try again.
Don't forget we're on
an island in the middle of Okefenokee,
so try again.
Some sort of swamp buggy
or something like that?
It's a car. They had three cars
on the island.
Really? That's a heavy...
Heavy duty, isn't it?
Heavy chassis...
But look how well the metal's
been preserved. Yeah.
And there's another thing
to pick out too.
You see why it's so good?
It's British
Right-hand drive.
It's Durant car that they brought over
on the trains for three people.
Is that right?
Yeah. There were three cars
that would chug up and down.
And this thing is preserved so well.
Many cars that are ten years old
don't have a chassis as good as that.
that's a very heavy chassis.
Right. I think it was just to
take people up and down.
There's a big turpentine still
at the end of the island too.
And there was a cinema,
there was a barber ship.
All gone now.
It's amazing.
Yep.
Trains.
When the logging company
finished up business,
they just tried to get all
the people off
when the National Parks Fish
and Wildlife took it in 1937.
Although parts of Okefenokee can be
traversed on foot,
it is better explored by boat.
The waters of Okefenokee look like
polished ebony,
dark but highly reflective.
It is a landscape of mirrors,
fascinating and surreal.
Kent Vliet is from
the University of Florida.
He's an expert on Okefenokee's most
famous resident, the alligator.
You know there's one right
in front of us, John?
Yep. I can see that one.
The ability to "call" alligators by
making certain curious sounds
is a valuable skill for
inquisitive biologists.
It's coming.
Whoa, hey.
Do they have binocular vision?
Can they see three dimensions?
Only a little small fraction of
their total visual field
just in front of their nose is binocular
Is he coming too close?
No, he's fine.
Wow.
Why do they have the yellow
ring around their eyes?
Is there a function that's
known for that?
A number of aquatic animals have
coloration around the eye like
that hippopotamuses do.
It might have something to do with
magnifying the light going into the eye
Sort of the reverse of a football player
putting black grease under the eye.
To make you see better in fact.
He's going to go down.
There he goes.
How long will they stay under water?
They can stay under a good long time.
When they're resting in the afternoon,
they go down for at least 15 minutes.
He's up again, look.
Yeah, there it is.
In the wintertime they may
stay down for days.
Nobody knows.
For days and days?
You mean they really...
You mean they hibernate?
Well, yeah, in the sense
it is a hibernation.
Their metabolism slows down so much
when they're that cold that they
just require almost no oxygen.
And they don't eat, obviously,
if they...
No, they don't eat for several months
during the winter.
I should think the average member
of the public that comes to Okefenokee
and sees an alligator thinks
they have really arrived in prehistory
Back in the Age of the Reptiles.
The study of alligator social behavior
has occupied Kent Vliet
for several years.
At his laboratory in Gainesville,
Florida,
he works with a wealth
of accumulated data.
We've learned that alligator
behavior is very, very complex.
It's much more complex and
much more sophisticated
than the behavior of other reptiles
that have been studied.
And so our dealings with alligator
behavior have been to try to
document the types of behaviors
they show and analyze these,
Not only in simple terms of
alligator behavior,
but as they might represent
the primitive beginnings
from which the more complex behaviors
of birds and mammals have evolved.
Most of Kent's observations
have been made at
the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.
Several hundred alligators are
on display here
for the enlightenment of tourists.
The farm affords easy access to
an otherwise elusive animal.
before that just to see
if the place would work out.
Are there many differences
between these gator-farm alligators
and the ones you get in the wild?
Well, captive animals look a
lot different from wild animals.
The most noticeable difference...
Is that the head of a captive animal
is much broader.
You don't have this beautifully
elongated snout.
That's because captive animals spend
so much time on land basking,
and at least in old animals like these
the head weighs so much
that is just tends to flatten itself out
over the years.
It spreads out and becomes much broader
Is that what squeezes the teeth out too
Yeah...
because they're all showing
very obviously here?
They're very toothy animals
Also all the scales on their back
are worn down...
much more so than
a wild animal would be.
And that's just because these animals
live in very high densities on farms,
and they crawl over each other.
they just kind of buff each other
down all the time.
Since 1981 Kent Vliet has made
a detailed study
of alligator behavior
in the mating season
from April into June.
But Kent was not happy
with his original vantage point.
It was secure, but didn't provide
an accurate water-level view.
He decided to enter the lake
a procedure not without certain risks.
It is possible, when you're in the lake
that a big male will decide
he doesn't want you there
and actually come up and try
to get you out of his territory.
We've had very few problems
when I was swimming in the lake,
but there's always the potential for
an alligator getting hold of you
and doing some real damage.
Kent has found that alligators here
at the farm are fairly harmless
especially during mating season.
And, to increase his knowledge,
he puts this opinion to
a highly meaningful test.
We learned early on in our research
that we needed to get off
the boardwalks
and go down and look at alligators
at an alligator's eye level.
Alligators communicate to
each other visually by the way
they hold their bodies
out of the water.
And we got down into the water
to better understand
how alligators are talking
to each other in a visual sense.
Kent has taken a lot of kidding
about being up to his eyebrows
in alligators and "seeing eye to eye"
with his study subjects.
But he feels that because he can
understand an alligator's body language
he can ward off trouble before
it becomes a real threat.
I look for animals that are obviously
directing themselves toward me
as aggressive animals.
The way they tilt their head
and how high they hold their body
out of the water
are all indications
if they're being aggressive or not.
Not all the animals that come
towards me are aggressive.
Many are curious, but I still have
to treat them all about the same.
I can't let them get too close to me.
I carry a large, about five-foot-long
cypress pole with me,
And if an animal does get too close,
I just nudge it away and try to
keep it out of strike range.
The meaning, if any, of an alligator's
impressive yawn is not understood;
But other behavior like this
head-slapping display
has been deciphered.
It is an assertive gesture,
advertising an alligator's
social position.
In courtship season
the alligators stage
"bellowing choruses" almost daily.
Both sexes bellow, but they
make somewhat different sounds.
Just before a male bellows,
he produces subsonic signals that make
the water around him dance.
In the wild these signals may
dram females from a great distance.
Courtship is a quiet and oddly tender
process
that Kent has sometimes been able
to witness at close quarters.
Courtship is usually initiated by one
animal swimming slowly up to another.
And this is a very important stage
of courtship
because they have to communicate
to each animal that they
have non-aggressive intentions.
And secondly,
they go into a period of touching one
another along the face and neck.
And they really orient to each
other's head and neck.
in the third phase of courtship these
touching behaviors
become more exaggerated
and the animals start pressing
each other down under water.
And these are real tests of strength
between the two animals.
And these will be accentuated until one
animal is capable of pressing the other
under water
and ultimately circle around
and mount on that animal
and begin riding it around
and ultimately roll over to one side
and attempt to mate with that animal.
However they behave,
alligators have reproduced quite
successfully in Okefenokee.
Here, until the 1970s
they were badly hit by poachers.
Now, stiff laws protect a population
that has grown to about 12,000.
In summer, bubbling gases are like
the heartbeat of Okefenokee.
Beneath the dark waters
is a thick layer
of decomposing vegetation called peat.
The gases it creates sometimes
lift large patches
of peat to float on the surface.
Old-timers called this a 'blow-up'.
Over time, the floating mats of peat
are covered with vegetation.
Some sink again, but others become
floating islands
and eventually support bushes
and even trees.
Ultimately, the trees take root
and new land is created
small wooded islands
known locally as houses.
Okefenokee is an Indian word that means
'land of the trembling earth'
John Paling shows how fitting
the name is
when he lands on a
young floating island.
I actually enjoy walking on
"trembling earth", if I admit it.
It's one of these strange experiences
like walking on a bowl of jelly.
The waters of Okefenokee
are highly acid,
about as acidic as strong tea
and much the same color.
Conditions favor the growth
of insect-eating plants
that are found here in great variety.
This pitcher plant lures insects to
its hollow tubular leaf with nectar.
Once inside, few insects escape.
They're fooled by light
from the translucent windows
that line the back of the tube.
They exhaust themselves trying
to get out.
Eventually the insects fall
to the bottom of the tube.
There they are dissolved by acid
secretions and the plant absorbs them.
Another deadly attraction is the sundew
Its leaves are adorned
with brightly colored stalks
tipped with shiny droplets
apparently a sweet meal
for passing insects.
But hungry insects soon
become entangled.
Escape is impossible when the plant
finally closes to digest its victim.
Along the edges of islands
and in shallow marshes
insects are snared
in such deadly traps.
When it's all over,
there will be nothing left of them
except their indigestible husks.
As night falls Okefenokee's gloom
and its grandeur deepen.
One hundred million years ago
the alligator's ancestors thrived
in prehistoric swamps.
As far as we know, they looked much
as they do today.
The eyes of the alligator
are highly reflective.
They shine with an eerie glow
in the night.
John Paling and Kent Vliet conduct
a nighttime search for baby alligators
Disturbing alligators here in
the refuge is strictly outlawed.
Even scientists like Vliet need
special permission just to touch one.
Let's cut off the engine for a minute
and get some peace. Okay.
Wow! That makes a difference,
doesn't it?
Let's pole from here.
It's beautiful in here.
Nice and quiet without that outboard.
Sure thing.
Do you see any gators yet, or not?
I haven't seen any
in this small stretch here.
I'll just flash the light around there
Is that one over there?
Yeah. That's one back
in the water lilies.
Let's try and get a bit closer to it,
can we?
I'll pole some more if you'll keep
paddling on that side.
Unlike the closely related crocodile,
alligators rarely attack man.
There are only about a half dozen
fatalities on record,
and there has never been a serious
incident in the Okefenokee Refuge.
Even so, there's a certain tension
whenever they're about.
Do you see one?
I'll keep going. Say when.
Okay, Just a little closer.
You got one?
The captured baby gives
a continuous cry of alarm.
John and Kent work quickly.
They want to minimize stress
on the baby
and avoid trouble with its mother
who might be nearby.
Forty-two-and-a-half centimeters.
Forty-two?
Uh huh. Forty-two. Good.
What's it reading?
It's just at 200 grams.
Watch it, watch it, watch it, watch it
My god! She's really cruising.
Is it the call of the baby?
Yeah. The baby's just
continually calling.
Well, hang on. Her jaws are open a bit
Her teeth are showing.
Kent, are you sure it's okay?
I don't think it's a good idea
to stay here.
Do you want to put the baby back,
or what?
Probably what I should do is just tap her
on the nose and see if it scares her.
They are often a little more brave
at night than they are in the daytime.
Watch! She's coming, Kent.
Boy, she really concentrates on that...
She just localizes right
on the distress call.
I think I had better push her off.
Are you sure?
She's a little too close.
This is not safe.
She's not safe?
No.
How about just putting the baby back?
Don't you think that's the best idea?
Yeah. We're definitely
at a disadvantage.
So Kent builds a record of
alligator growth in different areas.
Females grow to an average
of seven to eight feet,
While males may be up to 14 feet
and weigh 850 pounds.
Not all of Okefenokee's wonders
are found in the marshes.
John Paling explores a pine forest in
search of the red-cockaded woodpecker.
The birds are endangered
and difficult to find.
They live in groups of three or more,
and each of these so-called "clans"
requires about 200 acres of home range
This small woodpecker,
only seven inches in length,
has become famous for
its finicky habits.
It will only make holes
in old pine trees
that are usually infected by
a certain disease red heart fungus.
The fungus softens the tree's
inner core,
making the woodpecker's work easy.
When a clan of woodpeckers finds trees
that suit them exactly,
They may remain here for life.
The woodpecker's keep busy, however,
carrying out a fascinating scheme
for survival.
They constantly make fresh holes
in the trees,
causing them to exude a
thick coating of resin.
It's a sharp and smelly substance,
the main ingredient of turpentine.
The woodpecker's nest hole
is surrounded be resin.
And it's always located
on the western side of the trunk
where the heat of the sun will
help keep the resin moist and fresh.
The reason for all this only
becomes clear
with the appearance of a predator
like this corn snake.
Sometimes this snake can be
an amazing tree climber.
It can climb straight up and reach
bird nests 30 feet above the ground.
Eggs or baby birds
inside the woodpecker's nest
are seemingly easy prey.
But now the resin comes into play.
To the snake it's a powerful irritant.
Frequently is stops the snake entirely
Even if the snake persists,
it still tries to avoid contact
with the resin.
Often the snake ends up retreating
the hard way.
Such moments of threat and drama
frequently interrupt the tranquility
of Okefenokee.
The predator in one situation can
become prey in the next.
A baby alligator in pursuit
of a diving katydid.
Hiding underwater, the katydid
is safe temporarily.
But after two minutes or so,
it must come up for air.
It's midsummer.
John Paling and Kent Vliet
search for alligator nests.
At this time of year dozens of nests
are concealed in the swamp.
The best way to find one is
to look for the trail
the female alligator has made
when coming and going from the nest.
They should be pretty clear.
If they're used often like a trail
to a nest is,
they're pretty obvious.
This looks like one right here.
Left?
Right by these yellow flowers
in this clump here.
Let's shove the nose of the boat
in here.
Yeah, this is one.
Oh, I can see it.
Yeah. It does look like
it's used pretty frequently too.
That one looks really packed down.
I think it's probably
one leading to a nest.
Alligator trails form a network of
natural pathways through the swamp.
They were often followed
by early explorers.
But there's a drawback.
Alligators like to lie submerged
along the trails.
It's all to easy to step on one.
In the nesting season the female
alligator is on the defensive.
She herself has nothing to fear,
but her eggs are highly vulnerable.
Scavengers often attack the nest.
Wait a minute. Here's the nest.
It's been attacked, hasn't it?
No, I think they've been eaten.
Something's gotten into the nest
and eaten the eggs.
Oh. What would have eaten these then?
Probably either raccoons or black bears
Black bears eat a lot of
alligator nests here.
But I mean raccoons and bears wouldn't
swim and wade through this stuff?
Well, there could be one living
in this island,
or he may have moved
from island to island.
It's hard to say if it was
a black bear or a raccoon though.
Sometimes black bears will pick off
the end of an egg
and just eat the insides out of it.
I don't know how they do it.
They may just use a claw and
just pop the top off and eat it.
This is sort of like an island.
How does the mother make it?
I think this nest is either sunk
from its own weight
after she built it or the water level
in the swamp has risen some.
These things just scrape up all
the dirt and vegetation around them.
You see there's peat in here
and a lot of plant matter
that holds it together.
And also the rotting plant
matter heats the eggs.
It creates heat as it rots,
and it actually keeps the eggs warmer
than they would be just
with the sun on them.
Could she still be around now these
have been eaten?
I think she probably came back
and realized that it had been disturbed
and just lost interest and left.
Let's find another one then.
Okay. That's really too bad.
Often the female alligator
is not far from the nest.
And when she discovers an intruder,
she can be highly aggressive.
John Paling once faced such
a confrontation unexpectedly
when filming a nest.
This was, in Paling's understated words
a moment
"of surprise and serious concern".
It ended only when he backed off,
leaving the nest to its rightful owner
The fierce protection given the nest
plays a vital part
in the life of the redbelly turtle.
The female turtle tries to lay her eggs
in the alligator's nest.
If she succeeds,
the mother alligator
will unwittingly stand guard over
the turtle eggs as well as her own.
Risking attack,
the turtle invades the nest
and lays her eggs
taking advantage of the warmth
and moisture.
Leaving her eggs behind,
the turtle tries to get away.
It's just as risky as getting in.
Most adult turtles in Okefenokee
bear the marks of encounters like this.
Often they are not harmed.
It's as if alligators recognize
the turtle after one futile bite.
Finding it hard to crack,
they then leave it alone.
The female turtle has done her part.
She leaves her eggs in the alligator's
protection and will not return.
For otters, turtles are handy
and long-suffering playthings.
Otters are perhaps the most
entertaining inhabitants of Okefenokee
And playfulness is believed
to be one strong indication
of animal intelligence.
Violent thunderstorms often
rake Okefenokee in summer.
And during a dry period
lightning can set the swamp ablaze.
Peat, when dry, is flammable.
It can burn slowly and steadily
for months at a time.
So fire eats away the land
in Okefenokee.
Scientists think such fires may serve
to revitalize the swamp,
creating hollows where new ponds
and lakes form when the drought ends.
Recovery after a fire is swift.
Soon Okefenokee is once again
resplendent with vibrant color.
By late summer the baby alligators
are ready to hatch.
It has taken about nine weeks
for the eggs to incubate.
A chorus of cries from the nest
brings the mother alligator
to assist her young.
The baby turtles may also be hatching
at the same time.
The alligator baby.
Its cries have been loud enough
to be heard
even before the egg has broken open.
Interestingly enough, the sex
of baby alligators
is determined by the temperature
surrounding the eggs
Above 90 degrees Fahrenheit
only males develop.
Below 87 degrees there are
only females.
No one yet knows precisely
how this serves the alligator's survival.
The mother alligator tries to seize the
young in her mouth and carry them away.
The baby turtles aren't so fortunate.
In all the confusion they're
on their own.
With ponderous care,
the mother alligator carries
her young away to water one by one.
The baby turtles seem to know
instinctively to lie low
when the mother alligator is near.
When the baby turtles
make a break for it,
they head unerringly
for the nearest water.
When all this is over,
a new generation of both turtles and
alligators begins life in Okefenokee.
In 1960 a dam was built in
the wildlife refuge
on the Suwannee River
that could change Okefenokee forever.
By holding water in the swamp,
the dam is intended to prevent fires
and loss of timber in nearby forests.
But it could also upset
the balance of fire
and regeneration that makes
the makes the swamp what it is.
Experts disagree,
and it could be decades
before the full impact is known.
In the realm of the alligator,
meanwhile,
life continues according
to an ancient pattern.
At this age the young alligators
are vulnerable to many predators.
They will remain in
their mother's protection
for several months
before going off on their own.
So the alligator has survived
on earth
long before the time of man.
And with sufficient human knowledge
and concern,
the alligator will remain
an ancient and durable survivor
of the distant past.
and subtle beauty.
It is a mysterious swamp called
"Okefenokee"...
the realm of the Alligator.
Okefenokee...
a forbidding place once
thought to harbor deadly diseases.
It sheltered fugitives
and inspired fear and superstition.
Today Okefenokee Swamp is a
well-know wildlife refuge.
But even for people like
biologist-photographer.
Dr. John Paling,
it is not entirely welcoming.
"Whenever I go back to Okefenokee now,
I've got mixed feelings about it".
From the air when you go across it,
it looks just so beautiful
and so serene and so natural
and so appealing.
And yet it can be a place
of such contrasts
that it seems almost as if man was never
intended to be there for long.
Okefenokee Swamp is a
A mosaic of islands, forest, marshes,
and open water.
It's famed for its alligators
and as the home of Pogo,
The comic-strip possum.
Although it overlaps
the Florida state line,
most of Okefenokee lies
in southeastern Georgia.
Okefenokee's population
of Seminole Indians
was driven out in the 1830s.
It was soon infiltrated
by white settlers called "swampers."
By the 1930s the swampers
were well established here,
Showing off alligator nests and eggs
for visiting photographers.
The swampers were a breed apart.
Many had few needs or
interests outside Okefenokee.
Those who knew them admired their
simplicity and self-reliance.
Soon after the turn of the century,
virgin stands of cypress brought
an invasion to the swamp.
This and earlier schemes
to build a ship canal
through the swamp and even to drain it
threatened to destroy Okefenokee.
But much of Okefenokee's prime timber
was cleared in less than 20 years.
Soon the swampers were alone again.
In 1937, Okefenokee was declared
a national wildlife refuge.
The human residents would
eventually leave.
One old-timer said,
we have the swamp and that's good.
But the swampers are all gone.
It's just a shame we can't have both.
More than fifty years
after they were abandoned,
relics of the old logging camps
still can be found.
Now deep in regrowing forest,
they're objects of curiosity
for biologists like
Kent Vliet and John Paling.
This is an old train.
Oh, this is?
The engine was up front...
and there would be water
in this old cylinder.
After working here for several seasons
Paling, born in England,
has become intimately familiar
with this Georgia swamp.
And there's something even more
dramatic over here.
Come and have a guess sat this.
What do you make of this?
That's some sort of a chassis.
Right.
Is that what they carried the logs on?
Nope. Try again.
Don't forget we're on
an island in the middle of Okefenokee,
so try again.
Some sort of swamp buggy
or something like that?
It's a car. They had three cars
on the island.
Really? That's a heavy...
Heavy duty, isn't it?
Heavy chassis...
But look how well the metal's
been preserved. Yeah.
And there's another thing
to pick out too.
You see why it's so good?
It's British
Right-hand drive.
It's Durant car that they brought over
on the trains for three people.
Is that right?
Yeah. There were three cars
that would chug up and down.
And this thing is preserved so well.
Many cars that are ten years old
don't have a chassis as good as that.
that's a very heavy chassis.
Right. I think it was just to
take people up and down.
There's a big turpentine still
at the end of the island too.
And there was a cinema,
there was a barber ship.
All gone now.
It's amazing.
Yep.
Trains.
When the logging company
finished up business,
they just tried to get all
the people off
when the National Parks Fish
and Wildlife took it in 1937.
Although parts of Okefenokee can be
traversed on foot,
it is better explored by boat.
The waters of Okefenokee look like
polished ebony,
dark but highly reflective.
It is a landscape of mirrors,
fascinating and surreal.
Kent Vliet is from
the University of Florida.
He's an expert on Okefenokee's most
famous resident, the alligator.
You know there's one right
in front of us, John?
Yep. I can see that one.
The ability to "call" alligators by
making certain curious sounds
is a valuable skill for
inquisitive biologists.
It's coming.
Whoa, hey.
Do they have binocular vision?
Can they see three dimensions?
Only a little small fraction of
their total visual field
just in front of their nose is binocular
Is he coming too close?
No, he's fine.
Wow.
Why do they have the yellow
ring around their eyes?
Is there a function that's
known for that?
A number of aquatic animals have
coloration around the eye like
that hippopotamuses do.
It might have something to do with
magnifying the light going into the eye
Sort of the reverse of a football player
putting black grease under the eye.
To make you see better in fact.
He's going to go down.
There he goes.
How long will they stay under water?
They can stay under a good long time.
When they're resting in the afternoon,
they go down for at least 15 minutes.
He's up again, look.
Yeah, there it is.
In the wintertime they may
stay down for days.
Nobody knows.
For days and days?
You mean they really...
You mean they hibernate?
Well, yeah, in the sense
it is a hibernation.
Their metabolism slows down so much
when they're that cold that they
just require almost no oxygen.
And they don't eat, obviously,
if they...
No, they don't eat for several months
during the winter.
I should think the average member
of the public that comes to Okefenokee
and sees an alligator thinks
they have really arrived in prehistory
Back in the Age of the Reptiles.
The study of alligator social behavior
has occupied Kent Vliet
for several years.
At his laboratory in Gainesville,
Florida,
he works with a wealth
of accumulated data.
We've learned that alligator
behavior is very, very complex.
It's much more complex and
much more sophisticated
than the behavior of other reptiles
that have been studied.
And so our dealings with alligator
behavior have been to try to
document the types of behaviors
they show and analyze these,
Not only in simple terms of
alligator behavior,
but as they might represent
the primitive beginnings
from which the more complex behaviors
of birds and mammals have evolved.
Most of Kent's observations
have been made at
the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.
Several hundred alligators are
on display here
for the enlightenment of tourists.
The farm affords easy access to
an otherwise elusive animal.
before that just to see
if the place would work out.
Are there many differences
between these gator-farm alligators
and the ones you get in the wild?
Well, captive animals look a
lot different from wild animals.
The most noticeable difference...
Is that the head of a captive animal
is much broader.
You don't have this beautifully
elongated snout.
That's because captive animals spend
so much time on land basking,
and at least in old animals like these
the head weighs so much
that is just tends to flatten itself out
over the years.
It spreads out and becomes much broader
Is that what squeezes the teeth out too
Yeah...
because they're all showing
very obviously here?
They're very toothy animals
Also all the scales on their back
are worn down...
much more so than
a wild animal would be.
And that's just because these animals
live in very high densities on farms,
and they crawl over each other.
they just kind of buff each other
down all the time.
Since 1981 Kent Vliet has made
a detailed study
of alligator behavior
in the mating season
from April into June.
But Kent was not happy
with his original vantage point.
It was secure, but didn't provide
an accurate water-level view.
He decided to enter the lake
a procedure not without certain risks.
It is possible, when you're in the lake
that a big male will decide
he doesn't want you there
and actually come up and try
to get you out of his territory.
We've had very few problems
when I was swimming in the lake,
but there's always the potential for
an alligator getting hold of you
and doing some real damage.
Kent has found that alligators here
at the farm are fairly harmless
especially during mating season.
And, to increase his knowledge,
he puts this opinion to
a highly meaningful test.
We learned early on in our research
that we needed to get off
the boardwalks
and go down and look at alligators
at an alligator's eye level.
Alligators communicate to
each other visually by the way
they hold their bodies
out of the water.
And we got down into the water
to better understand
how alligators are talking
to each other in a visual sense.
Kent has taken a lot of kidding
about being up to his eyebrows
in alligators and "seeing eye to eye"
with his study subjects.
But he feels that because he can
understand an alligator's body language
he can ward off trouble before
it becomes a real threat.
I look for animals that are obviously
directing themselves toward me
as aggressive animals.
The way they tilt their head
and how high they hold their body
out of the water
are all indications
if they're being aggressive or not.
Not all the animals that come
towards me are aggressive.
Many are curious, but I still have
to treat them all about the same.
I can't let them get too close to me.
I carry a large, about five-foot-long
cypress pole with me,
And if an animal does get too close,
I just nudge it away and try to
keep it out of strike range.
The meaning, if any, of an alligator's
impressive yawn is not understood;
But other behavior like this
head-slapping display
has been deciphered.
It is an assertive gesture,
advertising an alligator's
social position.
In courtship season
the alligators stage
"bellowing choruses" almost daily.
Both sexes bellow, but they
make somewhat different sounds.
Just before a male bellows,
he produces subsonic signals that make
the water around him dance.
In the wild these signals may
dram females from a great distance.
Courtship is a quiet and oddly tender
process
that Kent has sometimes been able
to witness at close quarters.
Courtship is usually initiated by one
animal swimming slowly up to another.
And this is a very important stage
of courtship
because they have to communicate
to each animal that they
have non-aggressive intentions.
And secondly,
they go into a period of touching one
another along the face and neck.
And they really orient to each
other's head and neck.
in the third phase of courtship these
touching behaviors
become more exaggerated
and the animals start pressing
each other down under water.
And these are real tests of strength
between the two animals.
And these will be accentuated until one
animal is capable of pressing the other
under water
and ultimately circle around
and mount on that animal
and begin riding it around
and ultimately roll over to one side
and attempt to mate with that animal.
However they behave,
alligators have reproduced quite
successfully in Okefenokee.
Here, until the 1970s
they were badly hit by poachers.
Now, stiff laws protect a population
that has grown to about 12,000.
In summer, bubbling gases are like
the heartbeat of Okefenokee.
Beneath the dark waters
is a thick layer
of decomposing vegetation called peat.
The gases it creates sometimes
lift large patches
of peat to float on the surface.
Old-timers called this a 'blow-up'.
Over time, the floating mats of peat
are covered with vegetation.
Some sink again, but others become
floating islands
and eventually support bushes
and even trees.
Ultimately, the trees take root
and new land is created
small wooded islands
known locally as houses.
Okefenokee is an Indian word that means
'land of the trembling earth'
John Paling shows how fitting
the name is
when he lands on a
young floating island.
I actually enjoy walking on
"trembling earth", if I admit it.
It's one of these strange experiences
like walking on a bowl of jelly.
The waters of Okefenokee
are highly acid,
about as acidic as strong tea
and much the same color.
Conditions favor the growth
of insect-eating plants
that are found here in great variety.
This pitcher plant lures insects to
its hollow tubular leaf with nectar.
Once inside, few insects escape.
They're fooled by light
from the translucent windows
that line the back of the tube.
They exhaust themselves trying
to get out.
Eventually the insects fall
to the bottom of the tube.
There they are dissolved by acid
secretions and the plant absorbs them.
Another deadly attraction is the sundew
Its leaves are adorned
with brightly colored stalks
tipped with shiny droplets
apparently a sweet meal
for passing insects.
But hungry insects soon
become entangled.
Escape is impossible when the plant
finally closes to digest its victim.
Along the edges of islands
and in shallow marshes
insects are snared
in such deadly traps.
When it's all over,
there will be nothing left of them
except their indigestible husks.
As night falls Okefenokee's gloom
and its grandeur deepen.
One hundred million years ago
the alligator's ancestors thrived
in prehistoric swamps.
As far as we know, they looked much
as they do today.
The eyes of the alligator
are highly reflective.
They shine with an eerie glow
in the night.
John Paling and Kent Vliet conduct
a nighttime search for baby alligators
Disturbing alligators here in
the refuge is strictly outlawed.
Even scientists like Vliet need
special permission just to touch one.
Let's cut off the engine for a minute
and get some peace. Okay.
Wow! That makes a difference,
doesn't it?
Let's pole from here.
It's beautiful in here.
Nice and quiet without that outboard.
Sure thing.
Do you see any gators yet, or not?
I haven't seen any
in this small stretch here.
I'll just flash the light around there
Is that one over there?
Yeah. That's one back
in the water lilies.
Let's try and get a bit closer to it,
can we?
I'll pole some more if you'll keep
paddling on that side.
Unlike the closely related crocodile,
alligators rarely attack man.
There are only about a half dozen
fatalities on record,
and there has never been a serious
incident in the Okefenokee Refuge.
Even so, there's a certain tension
whenever they're about.
Do you see one?
I'll keep going. Say when.
Okay, Just a little closer.
You got one?
The captured baby gives
a continuous cry of alarm.
John and Kent work quickly.
They want to minimize stress
on the baby
and avoid trouble with its mother
who might be nearby.
Forty-two-and-a-half centimeters.
Forty-two?
Uh huh. Forty-two. Good.
What's it reading?
It's just at 200 grams.
Watch it, watch it, watch it, watch it
My god! She's really cruising.
Is it the call of the baby?
Yeah. The baby's just
continually calling.
Well, hang on. Her jaws are open a bit
Her teeth are showing.
Kent, are you sure it's okay?
I don't think it's a good idea
to stay here.
Do you want to put the baby back,
or what?
Probably what I should do is just tap her
on the nose and see if it scares her.
They are often a little more brave
at night than they are in the daytime.
Watch! She's coming, Kent.
Boy, she really concentrates on that...
She just localizes right
on the distress call.
I think I had better push her off.
Are you sure?
She's a little too close.
This is not safe.
She's not safe?
No.
How about just putting the baby back?
Don't you think that's the best idea?
Yeah. We're definitely
at a disadvantage.
So Kent builds a record of
alligator growth in different areas.
Females grow to an average
of seven to eight feet,
While males may be up to 14 feet
and weigh 850 pounds.
Not all of Okefenokee's wonders
are found in the marshes.
John Paling explores a pine forest in
search of the red-cockaded woodpecker.
The birds are endangered
and difficult to find.
They live in groups of three or more,
and each of these so-called "clans"
requires about 200 acres of home range
This small woodpecker,
only seven inches in length,
has become famous for
its finicky habits.
It will only make holes
in old pine trees
that are usually infected by
a certain disease red heart fungus.
The fungus softens the tree's
inner core,
making the woodpecker's work easy.
When a clan of woodpeckers finds trees
that suit them exactly,
They may remain here for life.
The woodpecker's keep busy, however,
carrying out a fascinating scheme
for survival.
They constantly make fresh holes
in the trees,
causing them to exude a
thick coating of resin.
It's a sharp and smelly substance,
the main ingredient of turpentine.
The woodpecker's nest hole
is surrounded be resin.
And it's always located
on the western side of the trunk
where the heat of the sun will
help keep the resin moist and fresh.
The reason for all this only
becomes clear
with the appearance of a predator
like this corn snake.
Sometimes this snake can be
an amazing tree climber.
It can climb straight up and reach
bird nests 30 feet above the ground.
Eggs or baby birds
inside the woodpecker's nest
are seemingly easy prey.
But now the resin comes into play.
To the snake it's a powerful irritant.
Frequently is stops the snake entirely
Even if the snake persists,
it still tries to avoid contact
with the resin.
Often the snake ends up retreating
the hard way.
Such moments of threat and drama
frequently interrupt the tranquility
of Okefenokee.
The predator in one situation can
become prey in the next.
A baby alligator in pursuit
of a diving katydid.
Hiding underwater, the katydid
is safe temporarily.
But after two minutes or so,
it must come up for air.
It's midsummer.
John Paling and Kent Vliet
search for alligator nests.
At this time of year dozens of nests
are concealed in the swamp.
The best way to find one is
to look for the trail
the female alligator has made
when coming and going from the nest.
They should be pretty clear.
If they're used often like a trail
to a nest is,
they're pretty obvious.
This looks like one right here.
Left?
Right by these yellow flowers
in this clump here.
Let's shove the nose of the boat
in here.
Yeah, this is one.
Oh, I can see it.
Yeah. It does look like
it's used pretty frequently too.
That one looks really packed down.
I think it's probably
one leading to a nest.
Alligator trails form a network of
natural pathways through the swamp.
They were often followed
by early explorers.
But there's a drawback.
Alligators like to lie submerged
along the trails.
It's all to easy to step on one.
In the nesting season the female
alligator is on the defensive.
She herself has nothing to fear,
but her eggs are highly vulnerable.
Scavengers often attack the nest.
Wait a minute. Here's the nest.
It's been attacked, hasn't it?
No, I think they've been eaten.
Something's gotten into the nest
and eaten the eggs.
Oh. What would have eaten these then?
Probably either raccoons or black bears
Black bears eat a lot of
alligator nests here.
But I mean raccoons and bears wouldn't
swim and wade through this stuff?
Well, there could be one living
in this island,
or he may have moved
from island to island.
It's hard to say if it was
a black bear or a raccoon though.
Sometimes black bears will pick off
the end of an egg
and just eat the insides out of it.
I don't know how they do it.
They may just use a claw and
just pop the top off and eat it.
This is sort of like an island.
How does the mother make it?
I think this nest is either sunk
from its own weight
after she built it or the water level
in the swamp has risen some.
These things just scrape up all
the dirt and vegetation around them.
You see there's peat in here
and a lot of plant matter
that holds it together.
And also the rotting plant
matter heats the eggs.
It creates heat as it rots,
and it actually keeps the eggs warmer
than they would be just
with the sun on them.
Could she still be around now these
have been eaten?
I think she probably came back
and realized that it had been disturbed
and just lost interest and left.
Let's find another one then.
Okay. That's really too bad.
Often the female alligator
is not far from the nest.
And when she discovers an intruder,
she can be highly aggressive.
John Paling once faced such
a confrontation unexpectedly
when filming a nest.
This was, in Paling's understated words
a moment
"of surprise and serious concern".
It ended only when he backed off,
leaving the nest to its rightful owner
The fierce protection given the nest
plays a vital part
in the life of the redbelly turtle.
The female turtle tries to lay her eggs
in the alligator's nest.
If she succeeds,
the mother alligator
will unwittingly stand guard over
the turtle eggs as well as her own.
Risking attack,
the turtle invades the nest
and lays her eggs
taking advantage of the warmth
and moisture.
Leaving her eggs behind,
the turtle tries to get away.
It's just as risky as getting in.
Most adult turtles in Okefenokee
bear the marks of encounters like this.
Often they are not harmed.
It's as if alligators recognize
the turtle after one futile bite.
Finding it hard to crack,
they then leave it alone.
The female turtle has done her part.
She leaves her eggs in the alligator's
protection and will not return.
For otters, turtles are handy
and long-suffering playthings.
Otters are perhaps the most
entertaining inhabitants of Okefenokee
And playfulness is believed
to be one strong indication
of animal intelligence.
Violent thunderstorms often
rake Okefenokee in summer.
And during a dry period
lightning can set the swamp ablaze.
Peat, when dry, is flammable.
It can burn slowly and steadily
for months at a time.
So fire eats away the land
in Okefenokee.
Scientists think such fires may serve
to revitalize the swamp,
creating hollows where new ponds
and lakes form when the drought ends.
Recovery after a fire is swift.
Soon Okefenokee is once again
resplendent with vibrant color.
By late summer the baby alligators
are ready to hatch.
It has taken about nine weeks
for the eggs to incubate.
A chorus of cries from the nest
brings the mother alligator
to assist her young.
The baby turtles may also be hatching
at the same time.
The alligator baby.
Its cries have been loud enough
to be heard
even before the egg has broken open.
Interestingly enough, the sex
of baby alligators
is determined by the temperature
surrounding the eggs
Above 90 degrees Fahrenheit
only males develop.
Below 87 degrees there are
only females.
No one yet knows precisely
how this serves the alligator's survival.
The mother alligator tries to seize the
young in her mouth and carry them away.
The baby turtles aren't so fortunate.
In all the confusion they're
on their own.
With ponderous care,
the mother alligator carries
her young away to water one by one.
The baby turtles seem to know
instinctively to lie low
when the mother alligator is near.
When the baby turtles
make a break for it,
they head unerringly
for the nearest water.
When all this is over,
a new generation of both turtles and
alligators begins life in Okefenokee.
In 1960 a dam was built in
the wildlife refuge
on the Suwannee River
that could change Okefenokee forever.
By holding water in the swamp,
the dam is intended to prevent fires
and loss of timber in nearby forests.
But it could also upset
the balance of fire
and regeneration that makes
the makes the swamp what it is.
Experts disagree,
and it could be decades
before the full impact is known.
In the realm of the alligator,
meanwhile,
life continues according
to an ancient pattern.
At this age the young alligators
are vulnerable to many predators.
They will remain in
their mother's protection
for several months
before going off on their own.
So the alligator has survived
on earth
long before the time of man.
And with sufficient human knowledge
and concern,
the alligator will remain
an ancient and durable survivor
of the distant past.