Cold weather good time for Alligator Gar research

RED RIVER – Winter weather in the south means one thing for AGFC biologists: GARkansas!

The recent cold snap has concentrated Alligator Gar in deep river holes, making it the perfect time for research. In a single 6-hour netting effort on the Red River, biologists captured 67 Alligator Gar, with the biggest stretching nearly 7.5 feet. Each gar was measured, tagged, and released, helping us learn more about these incredible fish. This netting effort was a test of a new capture method, and it proved incredibly successful, catching over twice as many gar in just hours compared to the number caught over the course of several days using previous methods.

As an added bonus, we were able to collect additional information on another river dinosaur, Paddlefish.