I thought this was kind of interesting. The link has a video.
ON LAKE JESUP - Stealing an entire clutch of eggs from an alligator's nest is a bizarre experience on so many levels it's hard to know where to start.
It's an obscure slice of Florida, in which a band of thieves spends the three hottest weeks of the year harvesting tens of thousands of soon-to-be-born reptiles from dozens of lakes. And it's all done with state approval and oversight.
About 30 gator farmers in Florida depend on wild eggs and pay about $10 for each, a fee that includes $5 for the state and the rest for collection expenses. The farmers do it because their captive gators aren't as fertile and productive as those in the swamp.
On Seminole County's Lake Jesup on Tuesday, Dunnellon alligator farmer Archie Smith, 52, helped by Texas rancher and friend Sammy Long, 24, listens through headphones for directions from a scout in a helicopter.
Smith hears where to find an alligator nest. He aims his boat, powers up its 260-horsepower engine and -- unbelievably for those who have never seen this -- launches into what looks like a wall of giant cane.
The bamboo-like plant has stems 15 to 20 feet tall. It bends over and even parts slightly to permit Smith's boat to advance.
It's a trap; greenery swallows the airboat. Smith revs to full throttle, which produces a snarl like a chain saw, only a dozen times more thunderous. Even wearing earplugs, it's punishing.
The boat's propeller shreds cane into a blizzard of confetti, while the boat's bottom hits unseen things, putting a crazy buck and swerve into the ride.
The boat surges into a small opening, and Smith backs off the gas, killing the engine. It's a mamagator's lair -- hot, steamy and still -- but chilling.
She's there, frightened into hiding by the boat's roar, but still a palpable presence.
What's next is a plunder of nature's bounty. Smith, Long and bandits in two other boats will take every egg from every nest they can find.
But nobody will say there are too few alligators in mucky Lake Jesup. Drivers speeding across the State Road 417 bridge can spot countless snouts. The big picture is that gators, once hunted to near extinction, have rebounded dramatically in Florida.
Eggs and hatchlings are snacks for birds, raccoons, snakes and bull gators. Drought or floods cut nest success to near zero. Less than 10 percent of eggs result in mature gators.
Yet alligators can overwhelm the odds with a high rate of making babies.
Smith and Long slip over the side of the boat, Smith suggesting they keep an eye out. Long carries the gator-protection weapon, a relatively short walking stick to bop an aggressor's nose. The stick is mottled with tooth marks. Still, neither Smith, Long nor the others know of a collector who has been bitten.
Surprisingly, the pushed-over giant cane can be walked on to the nest, about 2 feet tall and 6 feet across.
The two dig bare-handed into a mass of rotting giant cane and uncover eggs. They are twice the size of the supermarket-chicken variety, but more elongated, and clink like glass.
Smith, also a junior-varsity football coach, and Long, a former Floridian, work quickly. They mark the 52 eggs to keep them right side up -- if turned over, the embryos drown -- and pack them in a crate cushioned with nesting material.
An alligator raised from one of the eggs might fetch a few or several hundred dollars in meat and hide. That's getting ahead of things. Smith and Long have to find a way out.
They leave without getting in and weighing down their boat. Instead, they push, while Smith reaches to the gas pedal. The boat lurches to freedom as Smith and Long scramble to get aboard and find the next nest.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...,3308073.story
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