In Gator Country, science and nature journalist Rebecca Renner delivers an astounding story about an alligator-poaching operation in the Florida Everglades. Her adventurous, in-depth study probes the nature of crime and human character, while also mining the far-reaching consequences of what it truly takes to survive--in the wild and in society.
Renner grew up in Florida, the "swampy Deep South," one of the most biodiverse places in the country. At the age of seven, she encountered her first alligator up close, behind her family's home. Thus began her lifelong fascination with alligators. This interest was further piqued in 2017, when Renner--an aspiring fiction writer--was working to support herself as a high school English teacher. A student had turned in a well-informed, intimate wildlife essay on poaching--"the act of illegally taking flora or fauna from the wild" and profiting from it--and feared Renner might snitch on him. This planted a seed in Renner. Years later, when she was working her way up the ranks as a nature writer for National Geographic and the New York Times, her interest in poaching resurfaced. In 2020, she became determined to learn more about alligator poaching from the points of view of the law and the poachers--those whom she identified as the economically poor struggling to live in Florida's diminishing wetlands.
Facing obstacles and opposition, she focussed on Operation Alligator Thief. This "multi-year undercover sting" was conducted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and "led to the arrests of eleven alligator poachers in one day alone, one of the biggest operations in the agency's history." Renner's narrative traces the covert operation and the actions of the undercover team led by a clever, eccentric man at the helm. Did the FWC really set up a fake alligator farm as a trap to entice poachers? Was it legal? And what were the underlying motives on both sides?
Renner (Drift: Collected Short Fiction), a gifted and deeply empathetic writer, paints such sympathetic, well-rounded portraits of the justice-seeking rangers and wildlife officers versus the struggling-to-survive poachers that readers will have trouble taking sides. Her propulsive narrative reads as suspensefully as a well-wrought mystery novel as she uncovers an exciting true story rife with shocking twists and turns that will educate, enlighten, and enthrall her audience. -- Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines
Shelf Talker: A science and nature journalist unspools an exciting, propulsive true story about an alligator poaching sting operation in Florida and what it reveals about nature--including human nature.