Alligator Season in Louisiana: Mating, Nesting, and When Baby Gators Appear
People ask me all the time when they can come see a gator. Fair question. The honest answer is that alligators run on a calendar, and it’s a temperature calendar, not a month-on-the-wall one. Once you understand how the year moves for them, you can pretty much predict what the swamp will be doing before you launch. I’ve paddled Manchac in every season there is. Some mornings the water is dead still and empty. Other mornings there’s a six-foot gator sunning on a log ten feet off the bow, not caring one bit that you’re there. The difference is almost always the thermometer. So let’s walk the year the way an alligator lives it. The short version, for people who just want the calendar Here’s the whole cycle in one glance, and then I’ll break each piece down. Winter: cold-blooded…