Reptile Park: 10 male alligators released into lagoon

With Brisbane in a snap lockdown, the Australian Reptile Park got its own deadly arrival from the sunshine state in the form of 10 angry male alligators, which were released into the lagoon.

Releasing 10 new male alligators into a lagoon swimming with a resident population of more than 30 was always going to be risky.

But risk is familiar to keepers at the Australian Reptile Park who took to the arduous task of releasing the 10 alligators, delivered from Australia Zoo in Queensland, into their alligator enclosure to improve their congregation’s genetic diversity.

Keepers had to check each alligator before guiding them into the lagoon.

The Australian Reptile Park released 10 new young male American alligators into its lagoon to increase the success of the zoo's breeding program. Picture: Richard Noone

Introducing young male alligators into a population with an established hierarchy was always going to present challenges.

Not least of which to the keepers but also to the alligators themselves with keepers nervous about a softening up period to rival that of any State of Origin.

The park’s head of reptiles Daniel Rumsey said fortunately American alligators were a bit more social than out Australian saltwater crocodiles.

The Australian Reptile Park released 10 new young male American alligators into its lagoon to increase the success of the zoo's breeding program. Picture: Richard Noone

“If we stuck a whole bunch of male saltwater crocs together they would fight and undoubtedly they would kill each other,” he said.

“Thankfully [these] big boys are pretty relaxed, it’s actually the females that are typically far more territorial as they protect their nesting sites.

“So if we were throwing 10 girls in here we would have our hands full, there’s no doubt about it. But still we’ll keep a close eye on the boys.”

The Australian Reptile Park released 10 new young male American alligators into its lagoon to increase the success of the zoo's breeding program. Picture: Richard Noone

Mr Rumsey said it was coming into a much cooler part of the year when alligators were not really thinking about food.

“If we do see any fighting, we’ll keep a close eye on them and hopefully we won’t have to remove any of the boys,” he said.

“But it’s going to be really fun when it comes to springtime when we have to feed all of these extra hungry big gators.”

The Australian Reptile Park released 10 new young male American alligators into its lagoon to increase the success of the zoo's breeding program. Picture: Richard Noone

Mr Rumsey said the zoo’s existing males were getting a big old and they needed to inject some young “testosterone to improve our breeding chances”.

“Now what we’re going to see is our new gators make a home here and then hopefully lots of breeding with some of our older females,” he said.