76 THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 



CHAPTER VII 



ENEMIES 



After alligators reach a length of three or four feet they 

 have no enemies, with the exception of man. Before the 

 eggs are hatched, the nests are subject to attack and the 

 eggs to be eaten by a number of animals. 'Coons, opossums, 

 skunks, hogs and bears are all fond of alligator eggs, and if 

 the mother is killed before her eggs hatch, there is very 

 little change for the young to develop, as the nest is almost 

 certain to be opened by some of the various animals who eat 

 eggs, and if the nest is opened and the eggs exposed to the 

 air the embryos will die, even if the eggs themselves are not 

 all eaten. After the young alligators are hatched, they may 

 be preyed upon by garfish or other large fish, and to a cer- 

 tain extent they may be preyed upon by individuals of their 

 own kind. The young alligators are also eaten by 'coons, as 

 I have a number of times seen 'coons catch young alligators 

 under fourteen inches in length that were on the edge of the 

 banks, and with a swift crunch of the jaw bite through the 

 skull. The only thing eaten by the 'coon is the minute brain. 



Man has caused the almost extermination of the alligator 

 in large sections of Louisiana, where once they fairly 

 swarmed. In the late Seventies and early Eighties, before 

 there had been any hunting of alligators on the many thou-' 

 sands of acres belonging to my family surrounding Avery 

 Island, they were present in unbelievable numbers ; and the 

 children of the place grew up in intimate association with 

 them, as we saw them every day and swam in the same 

 waters with them, had special names for many of them, 

 and when swimming in the bayou below the house, always 

 brought them to us by imitating the grunting call, which is 



