Perran Ross, a wildlife ecologist with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, holds an alligator being raised for its meat and skin – Monday, March 27, 2006. He said that demand is high and prices are good for Florida alligator skins, particularly smaller skins of high quality used in fashion accessories. In Louisiana, the nation’s largest producer, the 2005 hurricanes reduced the harvest of wild alligators and damaged egg nests, boosting demand for Florida alligator products.

(Marisol Amador/University of Florida/IFAS)
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