A cooler than expected Christmas has kicked alligator nesting into overdrive at the Australian Reptile Park to begin what is described as "the funniest time of the year".
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Staff at the Central Coast wildlife park were busy wrangling American alligators on Boxing Day after four to five females laid eggs on Christmas night.
The eggs must be retrieved from the nests and placed in an artificial incubation to ensure their survival, as the alligator embryos require a constant humidity and are susceptible to Australia's harsh summer conditions.
If the baby alligators were born in the enclosure with the Reptile Park's 53 resident alligators, they would also be in danger of being eaten by adults or could possibly escape the park and enter the Central Coast waterways.
"It's awesome. It's the best fun we have out of all the things that we do," Australian Reptile Park operations manager Brandon Gifford said.
"Nest raiding is the best time of year."
It's also the most dangerous practice at the Reptile Park, with the mother highly protective of her nest and the male alligators aggressively territorial.
"The night they're going to lay, they start getting a little nest defensive and then the next day they're just on fire and you can't get anywhere near the nest," Mr Gifford said.
"They're just running at you, mouth open.
"The most aggressive form of a gator is a nesting female."
Before the nests can be safely retrieved, Reptile Park staff are required to restrain the mother by wrangling her with a rope and jumping on the alligator's back like "a wild west rodeo."
It takes a team of up to 15 keepers to manage the egg raid safety - one roper, two to three people on the alligator, one nest digger, five fending off other reptiles in the enclosure and another five spotters outside the fence.
Alligator nest raids will be happening daily at the Reptile Park for the next three to four weeks.
Mr Gifford said each nest is checked three times to ensure no eggs are left unretrieved.
"There's four to five nests this morning, and there's even one with two girls on it so we think they've both laid in the one nest," he said on Friday.
"They're both defending it, so that's going to be a fun one to try and get to.
"It was ridiculous how they all went last night. It was that change in the weather. As soon as it went from being hot to getting a bit of rain, the pressure change tells them to lay straight away."
The nest raid season began early last Tuesday when keepers collected 19 eggs from the nest of Ally, a first-time mother.
The Australian Reptile Park boasts the largest American alligator population in the country.
The number of alligator hatchlings that are allowed to survive is tiny. The number is determined by a national studbook keeper and is based on the demand for the species.
American alligators are not endangered and can live for up 80 years in captivity.
"We treat them like a chicken egg," Mr Gifford said. "It's so important to mum to lay the eggs, but whether we bring it through or not is a completely different scenario based on who needs them.
"Otherwise we'd literally have 500 gators every year that we're trying to find homes for."
