Lake Ray Roberts Alligator? You Tell Me!
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As I held up the mysterious bones Saturday, I wondered just what I was looking at, what I had found. Right now, I would like to think it was a Shakespearian moment; holding up the skull as Hamlet … perhaps I bring you, the readers, along on a tail of infinite jest?
I knew for sure that I wish I had paid more attention in my biology and science classes, perhaps in another parallel universe I would be a scientist in the field researching what is surely a world nearer humanity’s end than it’s beginning. No, I would be stuck in a lab under green lights, looking into a microscope watching, waiting for some magic to never happen.
As far as I can tell, the partial skeleton I found on Lake Ray Roberts, Texas, Saturday, is that of an alligator. A few still connected and articulating caudal bones, and the main event – a nicely cleaned pelvis bone.
It’s impossible for me to recall, if I ever tipped that I had seen gator signs last year in this area of Lake Ray Roberts last year, but I wasn’t about to fly off on unsubstantiated “signs” before I had more information. The close proximity to HWY 377 was my first strong indicator; a great place to stop on a bridge in the middle of the night, and toss a pet over the side and suffer no more consequences of one’s own stupidity. A second of that sighting – of “signs” – came about a month ago, from Chris at Mariner Sails in Dallas, TX. He passed along a tease about a kayaker seeing alligator somewhere on Lake Ray Roberts.
So as soon as the weather cleared, I knew I had to go back to that location and see if our “gator” had survived. A lot of walking yielded one partial set of bones that I could not identify at the time, but have since come to believe are the remains of the sole gator on Lake Ray Roberts. I have covered a lot of that lake. Is that the only gator? How can anyone say that it is “the ONLY” gator when there are so many stupid people with stupid pet choices outgrowing their tubs?
Category: Adventure, Science and Environmental
That is the back half a backbone and pevis from a young deer.