03/14 FW Nature Center: Day 4

This past Thursday we embarked on an incredible experience: Alligator Catching! This was my favorite experience at the nature center so far, and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on it. One of the most shocking aspects of this excursion was what a process it was to catch the alligator, reel it in, bring it to shore, secure its jaws, take all the measurements, and release it back exactly where they found it. It was quite the day!
There are still some questions I was left with—the biggest one being: what is the purpose of collecting all the measurements? It seemed like an overly extensive process just to figure out the weight of one of many gators. Additionally, I would like to know how many they catch and measure each year? What is their food source and what other species reside in the pond? How do they count exactly how many are in that murky pond?
Overall, it was fascinating watching the rangers of the Fort Worth Nature Center manage these animals. They were up to the challenge of testing their grit and strength. It was a wonderful learning experience for our class—something the average TCU student could not say they have done before. Now, I am off to Peru for the week to hike Machu Picchu and explore the sites of Lima. I will be sure to include it in my nature blog when I return!  

Comments

  1. williams.dan76April 9, 2025 at 11:23 AM

    I love the top photo. Just great. It certainly was an amazing, unforgettable experience. But I also had questions about it the methods and meaning. But just being next to an eleven foot, 450 pound alligator was meaningful. They are some of the oldest creatures on earth and have been around long we we humans appeared. Thanks for posting this.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

04/27 Zoo Adventure

Image
Today, Caroline, Ashlyn, and I went to the Fort Worth Zoo! I go each year as a Frog Camp leader, but this time felt extra special after my experience in this class. I had a better appreciation for the beauty of nature and in this case, lots of animals! We saw elephants, giraffes, alligators, gorillas, lions, flamingos, kangaroos, tortoises, and hippos.  One of the coolest parts of the day to me was being close up to a lizard. As we were standing on the elephant observation deck, I looked down, and there was a lizard on the rail right in front of me. It was bright green and kept puffing out a little pink part below its chin—I have never seen anything like it. It was a rather beautiful intersection of impressive, large animals in the habitats with simple, small animals in the natural world.  Another cool experience was seeing the alligator that lives at the zoo. I thought no alligator could top the one we caught and measured at the nature center, but I was wrong. This one was ma...
Read more

04/11 FW Nature Center: Day 6

Image
We got to enjoy the beautiful weather and experience a hike on the Oak Motte trail out at the Fort Worth Nature Center yesterday. My favorite part was seeing the blue bonnets in full bloom. When I came to Texas for college I always heard people comment on how stunning these flowers were, but I had yet to experience them for myself. They are so unique! My group chose to go over to the lookout deck for yesterday's hike. We were unsuccessful in our mission to spot the bison, but we did see all the prairie dogs that were moved to the area. They had the cages set up over pre-dug holes like the Nature Center experts had told us about at the beginning of the semester. We set out on the Oak Motte trail and enjoyed the lush greenery—I feel like it popped up all of a sudden while we were gone over spring break! It really is looking beautiful out at the Nature Center.  On our first hike a few weeks ago, Dr. Williams quoted someone saying, "Of all the walks you take in life, make sure a f...
Read more

5 plant identifications (+ some animals!)

Image
  After class on Thursday, I had the joy of getting to enjoy the nice weather as I completed this assignment. I collected my pictures and then noticed how much more aware of nature I was as I walked home. I seemed to notice every insect, leaf, and flower more than usual. And I was able to capture pictures of an ant, squirrel, and crow as well! 
Read more