Gary Lafleur and his lab down here at Nicholls State have been looking at gar eggs and trying to determine the specifics of their toxicity. The short answer is: we don’t know exactly what makes them poisonous. They’ve got poisonous eggs, right? Is that unique to gar and what about them makes them poisonous? Gars may not be able to turn on a dime, but they’re much more flexible than we give them credit for - they can manage a little S-curve or C-shape bend. With that comes a bit less flexibility compared to fish with ctenoid or cycloid scales. The scales are interlocking - almost like chain mail. They’re not quite impenetrable, but that tough hide is very difficult to get through if you’re a predator. Can you tell us more about the scales? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Image Details Alligator Gar have armor-plated ganoid scales made up of a material very similar to the enamel on our teeth. They can easily get up to eight feet long maybe even close to 10 feet historically, but we don’t have great records of that. As far as I know, it’s the largest even compared to fossil gars. The alligator gar is the largest gar species alive today. Ferrara and other researchers at Nicholls State University.

In 2017, a job opportunity came up there and now I’m down here working on gar alongside Dr. And it was at this small university in southeastern Louisiana. Man, I mean seeing an alligator gar for the first time in the wild…that’s definitely imprinted on my memory. We were like, “W e need to see these alligator gars.” Sure enough, we got one that was just under five feet long.

Another guy from Canada and I were like the northern gar guys down there. They said, “ We’re going to be sampling alligator gar.” And I was like, “ WHAT?!?” I quickly got on a computer, changed my flight, and made sure I could be part of that. Ferrara and her grad students said, “ Hey, we’re heading back to Thibodaux to do some field work…you interested in joining?”

Fish and Wildlife Service and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. I was excited to meet a bunch of people who were studying gar, including agency folks from the U.S.

Allyse Ferrara had put together a symposium. I went to New Orleans for a conference about gar. I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan. Image Details Can you remember the first time you came across what you might consider a “mega” gar?ĭefinitely.

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