INITIATIVE · McCURLEY × DINKELACKER

American Alligators

Captive husbandry meets field science.

American alligators are a conservation success story — and a fragile one. They were pulled back from the brink, but their future still depends on habitat, climate, and the hard science of monitoring how real populations are actually doing.

This initiative pairs two kinds of expertise that rarely sit at the same table. Kevin McCurley brings four decades of captive crocodilian husbandry — how these animals are kept, handled, and cared for at the highest standard. Dr. Steve Dinkelacker brings the field science: since 2011 he has led an ongoing mark-recapture program on American alligators across the Albemarle Peninsula of North Carolina, with published research on broad-scale habitat associations and how climate change affects population stability at the northern edge of their range.

Together that is the whole picture — captive care that informs the field, and field data that informs captive care. It is the model Citadel Culebra is built on, applied to the apex animal of the American wetland.

The work

Mark-recapture

Long-term population study tracking real animals across the Albemarle Peninsula, year after year.

Habitat associations

Published research on where alligators thrive — and what shifts as the climate does at the range's edge.

Captive standards

Husbandry, handling, and protected-contact protocols that set the bar for keeping crocodilians safely.

Care ↔ field loop

Captive insight feeding field science and field data feeding captive practice — both made better.

Field reports and Dr. Dinkelacker's published research are referenced as the initiative publishes.

Join the founding class →All conservation work