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Gators Found With Low Hormone Levels
Monday, February 9, 1998; 12:42 p.m. EST


LAKE OKEECHOBEE, Fla. (AP) -- Researchers have found young
alligators along Lake Okeechobee's northern shore have very low
levels of hormones controlling reproduction, growth and resistance
to disease.

``Our results raise a very large red flag,'' said Louis F.
Guillette Jr. of the University of Florida.

``Something is clearly causing dramatic changes in the environment
for these alligators,'' he said. ``But are pesticides or some other
contaminants doing the damage? Or have there been changes in the
alligators' food supply or some other environmental conditions?''

The answers may shed light on whether there's a health hazard for
people, too. Like humans, alligators have a long life span and are
at the top of their food chain.

``We just don't know enough yet,'' said federal biologist Franklin
Percival.

Researchers saw similar problems in alligators in Lake Apopka after
a 1980 spill of difocol, a pesticide containing significant amounts
of DDT and related compounds. The lake's alligator populations
plunged as the percentage of successful hatchings fell from 54
percent in 1983 to less than 4 percent in 1988.

Guillette and his fellow researchers chose Lake Okeechobee this
time because it had had no known major chemical spills and
alligator hatch rates there are generally 40 percent to 50 percent.
They also studied hormone levels in alligators at Woodruff National
Wildlife Refuge near DeLand, where 80 percent to 90 percent of
gator eggs hatch successfully.

Their research, to be published in the March issue of the journal
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, indicated that hormone
levels in the reptiles correspond with fertility rates.

``What worries me is that we're still looking at the impacts caused
by old chemicals like DDT,'' Guillette said. ``And while we're
studying them individually, there's no good information about what
happens when all these old and new chemicals are combined.

``That's something for everybody to think about. Because every time
you drink a glass of water, you're drinking a mixture of thousands
of chemicals.''