{"id":993006,"date":"2026-08-10T12:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/993006\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T12:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:38:16","slug":"officials-asking-for-help-after-3-alligators-found-shot-at-fw-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/993006\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials asking for help after 3 alligators found shot at FW refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two of the alligators<\/a> were found dead in Lake Worth, while the third was found injured during nesting season checks, according to Refuge Manager Jared Wood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is never something you want to see for any wildlife,\u201d Wood said.<\/p>\n

According to a Friday\u00a0post on Facebook<\/a> from the Texas Game Wardens and Operation Game Thief<\/a>, an award of up to $1,000 is being offered to those who might have information about what happened or who was involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Operation Game Thief, which operates under the law enforcement division of the Texas Parks & Wildlife department, is a nonprofit organization that helps prevent the theft and destruction of wildlife and natural habitat.<\/p>\n

Wood said staff was notified of the dead alligators in late May by visitors who had been kayaking and boating on the lake. Finding alligators dead during the warm season is unusual, Wood said, so the team suspected foul play.<\/p>\n

The third alligator<\/a>, a nesting female, was flagged by staff in July after a piece of wood\u00a0that resembled an arrow or crossbow shaft was found in her back, Wood said. Nesting season ranges from July\u00a0to late September, and it\u2019s common for mothers at the refuge to have anywhere between five to 20 hatchlings if their nest survives, Wood said.<\/p>\n

The refuge, which spans 3,700 acres, is one of the largest urban wilderness areas in Texas and is home to may species beyond alligators, including bison, prairie dogs, eagles and otters.\u00a0Wood said alligators, which are native to Texas, are described as a keystone species.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means they have an impact on the entire ecosystem,\u201d Wood said. \u201cThey\u2019re an apex predators, so they help regulate pretty much all other wildlife species in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wood said over the three years he\u2019s worked at the refuge, he hasn\u2019t seen anything like this, though poaching isn\u2019t uncommon among many species. He noted the two incidents he knew of at the refuge had taken place in 2011 and 2019.<\/p>\n

Alligator hunting is tightly regulated in Texas and can only take place during designated seasons<\/a>, which according to the TPWD website is between April 1 and June 30 for counties including Dallas-Fort Worth<\/a>. Hunters must also comply with state tagging and reporting requirements and cannot leave carcasses behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want D-FW to take pride in its wildlife and their areas and hopefully the public can come together to help determine what\u2019s going on,\u201d Wood said. \u201cSince it happened in a public waterway, which we can\u2019t restrict, we need the public\u2019s help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone with information can submit an anonymous tip through one of the following methods:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of the alligators were found dead in Lake Worth, while the third was found injured during nesting…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":993007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,347,7371,7372,325482,358,290227,324926,324927,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-993006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-america","tag-article","tag-fort-worth","tag-fortworth","tag-news-crime","tag-texas","tag-tp-dallas-fortworth","tag-tp-fort-worth","tag-tp-tarrant-county","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/993007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}