Book chronicles Florida man's work to hunt down alligator poachers
Alligators aren't as thick in the water around here as they are in Florida, but Rebecca Renner's "Gator Country" will strike a chord.
Southeastern North Carolina and the Florida Everglades are part of a larger system, the Great Coastal Plain that runs from Virginia clear to the Texas Gulf Coast. And many of its problems are the same.
Renner, who writes for National Geographic, The New York Times, is a native Floridian, and to paraphrase Meredith Willson in "The Music Man," she knows the territory. She's eaten gator meat (which, properly prepared, tastes better than chicken and is arguably more sustainable). Gators have been part of her life since she was a little girl.
In "Gator Country," Renner tracks down Jeff Babauta, a veteran Florida game warden. In the 2010s, Babauta went undercover, posing as the owner of a semi-shady alligator farm, in an effort to catch alligator poachers.
Gators were nearly hunted to extinction and were put on the Endangered Species list in 1967. Since then, however, the Florida gator has made a remarkable recovery. Still, poachers after hides and eggs could threaten to put the population back into jeopardy.
Babauta, a veteran lawman and dedicated environmentalist who wanted one big score before retirement, had to unlearn years of police habit for his role. He let his military-style haircut grow long and shaggy and cultivated a sleazy-looking goatee. He had to break himself of backing into parking lots and drop police slang like "Ten-Four."
Fortunately, he knew his targets from years of field work -- and, like many of them, he had grown up poor.
While following Babauta's patient work, Renner breaks away to drive into the Everglades to track down the legend of Peg Brown, a legendary gator poacher who became a sort of Robin Hood to much of South Florida.
Renner, you can tell, hates the "Florida Man" stereotype. She tries to avoid seeing issues in black and white. The war on poaching is one with no enemies. Like many poachers of Venus' flytraps in North Carolina, gator poachers tend to be from poor backgrounds, and often poach for subsistence. Like many hunters or fishermen, they can't help but brag to a friendly ear, which is their Achilles' heel.
Rather than the smugglers, Renner argues, the real enemy is the rest of us -- ballooning suburbs that plow up wetlands and destroy habitat, and pump gallons of fertilizer into lakes and streams, leading to toxic algae blooms.
Reviewers tend to compare "Gator Country" to Susan Orleans' "Orchid Thief," and it's easy to see why. Both books cover similar territory, both are extremely well written, both have suspense and both sketch memorable, salty-flavored characters.
Book review
Gator Country: Deception, Danger and Alligators in the Everglades
By Rebecca Renner
Flatiron Books, $29.99
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: 'Gator Country' explores alligator poaching in Florida
