By Brian Skoloff
Lake Okeechobee, Florida - To the unaided eye, the swampy wilderness seems to sleep at night.
Only eerie murmurs, grunts and an occasional splash break the darkened silence.
But light it up and the illusion fades.
Alligators are everywhere, their red bulbous eyes glowing on the water's black surface. White birds flutter through the haze of a powerful spotlight. Turtles rest on logs in the saw-grass. Snakes slither through weeds.
On this balmy May evening, biologists took to the waters of Lake Okeechobee as part of Florida's annual alligator count, which is used to set the number of hunting permits issued in coming years. More hunters are expected this season after three people were killed in separate attacks earlier this month.
Aboard two air-boats sweeping across the saw-grass, the biologists counted 754 gators in about three hours covering just a several square-kilometre portion of Lake Okeechobee, one of the state's most concentrated alligator habitats.
With brains the size of a man's thumb, the American alligator might not be among the most intelligent species but it's certainly one of the most adaptable.
Even with rampant development and loss of wetlands, officials estimate there are more than one million alligators in Florida - a miraculous comeback for a species that was approaching extinction 40 years ago. State officials and environmentalists attribute the population growth to strict federal regulations on sales of alligator products like skin and meat and a strong conservation effort.
As the sun set over the lake's western rim setting aglow the wispy clouds in a fiery orange-red hue, biologist Lindsey Hord dipped what looked like a meat thermometer into the first few centimetres of water.
The water is 29°C. Perfect. The warmer the water, the more the gators surface.
Time to count.
Hord, who works for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, fired up the fan that thrusts the aluminium flat-bottom boat across the water with a grumbling whine comparable to the sound of a plane propeller.
Using a GPS system to track the boat's location in the near blackness of the night, Hord zipped around the lake aiming a spotlight at the surface and counting eyes. Alligators are easier to find in the dark when a single spotlight can illuminate dozens, even some hidden in saw-grass.
Each year, scientists set out into 50 locations statewide for the month-long population assessment, recording alligator size and age - if they can get close enough before the reptile sinks beneath the surface.
Short of a close-up visual, scientists use estimates, sometimes noting the distance between the gators' eyes or the pace with which it fled. The younger the gator, the slower it will be to retreat.
"It's normally alligators over six feet (two meters) that have learned to become wary of a light because they associate it with a person. That's just a survival instinct," Hord said.
The American alligator, found from southeast Oklahoma and east Texas across to North Carolina and Florida, can grow up to four metres long and weigh up to 450kg during a life span of more than 30 years.
This specific species emerged about four million years ago from a line of reptiles that have survived on Earth for 200-million years.
"They're constantly adapting to their environment," state alligator researcher Allan Woodward said.
The annual survey counts a small percentage of the population, then scientists extrapolate the data to determine rough numbers in the wild, Woodward said.
Even with hunting, the populations are increasing in some areas or at least remaining stable, he said.
"Our (hunters) are targeting the real big alligators, nine feet or larger, so we're actually reducing the population of those and the smaller ones seem to be doing a lot better," Woodward said.
With data collected from previous surveys, the commission expanded the 2006 hunting season - August 15 to November 1 - by six weeks over last year.
But permits rarely sell out, commission spokesperson Tony Young said.
About 4 300 hunting permits are available to both residents and nonresidents allowing for two alligator kills per permit. Last year, the commission sold the most ever - 2 770.
Young said he expects that number to rise given the widespread media coverage of the recent attacks.
When the movie Jaws came out in 1975, the number of people around the country seeking shark fishing permits increased sharply, he said.
"This might be the same type of result," Young said.
In 1967, after years of over-hunting and habitat loss, the alligator was listed as an endangered species. Conservation efforts and hunting regulations led the US Fish and Wildlife Service to pronounce the American alligator fully recovered 20 years later. It is listed by Florida as a species of special concern giving the state authority over management and control programmes.
Populations are doing so well in the state that 30 farms have permits to raise alligators and take eggs and hatchlings from the wild.
"There's a lot of them that the population doesn't need," Hord said. "Survival of young alligators is density-dependent. The higher the number of alligators, the lower the survival rate of young."
Hord said research shows that up to 50 percent of the eggs can be taken without any affect on the population.
Limited alligator hunting is allowed in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
Even staunch environmentalists agree that the alligator is thriving.
"In general, we don't have any real quarrel with the state's management of the alligator. I think they've done a pretty good job," said Charles Lee of Audubon of Florida. "There's no question that with the right biological input you can harvest a number of alligators on an annual basis as long as you don't reopen a Wild West atmosphere in terms of the trade of alligator products." - Sapa-AP