Some 30 years ago, I met an alligator up close and personal, and in all honesty, it scared the hell out of me, more so than some of the close encounters I had with some of the predators, including mountain lions and coyotes, who lived around my mountain home outside of Boulder, Colorado. I also had the opportunity to meet some crocodiles in East Africa, and while I know that these reptiles are intelligent, sentient beings, I have to say that their "prehistoric" look is what really scared me the most.
I've always wanted to know more about these reptiles, and I was thrilled to learn about a new highly acclaimed book by wildlife historian Mark V. Barrow, titled Gator! The Making of America’s Iconic Reptile, From First Encounters to Florida Man, in which he tells the gripping story of changing human attitudes toward these iconic creatures.
Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Gator!?
Mark V. Barrow: Gator! is a kind of love letter both to a fascinating creature, the American alligator, and to my home state of Florida. I was born and raised in Gainesville, deep in the heart of Gator Country. From a young age, I was immersed in a landscape that was not only brimming with living, breathing alligators but also with the ubiquitous gator symbolism associated with the University of Florida’s “Fightin’ Gators.” Our family spent a great deal of time outdoors, where we frequently encountered alligators, and we made numerous trips to nearby alligator-themed roadside attractions.
So researching and writing this book represented something of a homecoming. Although I have not lived in Florida since graduating from the University of Florida in 1985, the people, places, and stories at the heart of Gator! have remained an important part of who I am. Writing the book gave me an opportunity to reconnect with that world while exploring the remarkable history of an animal that has played such an important role in Florida's identity and sense of place.
MB: How does your book relate to your background and general areas of interest?
MVB: The idea for Gator! first came to me as I was finishing up my second book, Nature’s Ghosts: Confronting Extinction From the Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology. While researching the history of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, I discovered that the American alligator was one of the species whose dramatic decline helped spur the passage of that landmark legislation.
That discovery led me to think more deeply about the alligator's place in American history. Here was an animal that not only figured prominently in my childhood but also sat at the intersection of many of my scholarly interests: the history of natural history and wildlife conservation, environmental history, animal history, and American culture.
MB: Who do you hope to reach?
MVB: Although Gator! is grounded in extensive historical research, I wrote it for a broad audience. I hope it will appeal not only to scholars and students of environmental, cultural, and animal history, but also to anyone interested in wildlife, Florida, and the myriad ways humans have interacted with the natural world. My goal was to tell a compelling story that would engage general readers while offering new insights for specialists.
I also hope readers will come away from the book with a sense of optimism. The American alligator's recovery is one of the great endangered species success stories. At a moment when environmental narratives often emphasize decline and loss, its story demonstrates that determined individuals and effective public policy can reverse even seemingly dire trends.
MB: What are some of the topics you consider, and what are some of your major messages?
MVB: One of the book's central themes is the complex, changing relationship between humans and wildlife. Over the past two centuries, Americans have feared alligators, hunted them, transformed them into cultural symbols, and ultimately worked to protect them. The alligator's story reveals how dramatically attitudes toward nature can change and how those changes can have profound consequences for the creatures with whom we share the landscape.
More broadly, Gator! is about the ways people create meaning around animals. The alligator has served as a feared predator, a revered totem, a commercial resource, a tourist attraction, an unlikely pet, an environmental indicator, and a symbol of Florida itself. By tracing these multiple meanings and how they have shifted through time, the book uses one remarkable reptile to tell a larger story about American culture, environmental change, and the complex connections between people and the natural world.
MB: How does your work differ from others that are concerned with some of the same general topics?
MVB: Much of the existing scholarship on North American apex predators has focused on wolves, coyotes, bears, and cougars. These studies have shown how deep-seated fear, folklore, concerns about livestock, and worries about safety fueled long-running campaigns to eliminate large mammalian predators from the landscape, pushing some to the brink of extinction.
The American alligator presents a strikingly different story. Although it has long inspired fear and anxiety, it largely escaped the systematic eradication campaigns that decimated many other North American predators. Instead, alligators came to occupy a distinctive place in American culture, particularly in Florida, where they were celebrated as symbols of the state's landscape, identity, and tourist economy even as they were hunted for their hides.
Gator! argues that the alligator's success is a result of changes in human attitudes and institutions. Although Floridians have long feared alligators, they have also celebrated them as symbols of the state's unique environment and identity. That combination of respect, pride, and concern helped foster legal protections and wildlife-management programs designed to reduce conflicts between people and alligators, including nuisance-alligator removal programs. The fact that an estimated 1.3 million alligators are thriving in a state with more than 23 million residents offers a hopeful example of coexistence between people and apex predators in an increasingly crowded world.
MB: What do you hope readers will take away from the book's story of the alligator?
MVB: I hope readers come away with a deeper appreciation for the American alligator and its place in our shared history. The alligator is neither a mindless killing machine nor a cuddly mascot. It is a powerful predator, an important part of the ecosystems it inhabits, and an animal that has left a surprisingly large imprint on the history and culture of both Florida and the United States more broadly.
I also hope readers gain a new appreciation for the ways animals shape human societies and the meanings we attach to them. The story of the alligator reminds us that our relationships with wildlife are never static. They evolve over time, shaped by changing cultural values, economic interests, and ideas about nature. Understanding those relationships can tell us a great deal about both the animals around us and ourselves.