alligator gar

Meet America’s weirdest animals and find out where to see them

It’s time for a wildlife tour.

The world is full of fascinating critters. While animals like fluffy cows (aka Highland cattle) show off how cute Earth’s creatures can be, species like the muntjac deer epitomize how eccentric living beings can get. Get curious about the planet’s diverse population with this list of weird animals.

Once you learn about these animals, don’t be surprised if you feel the urge to go see them in person. Adventurous animal lovers who live in the United States actually can find these creatures throughout the country. From nutrias to hellbenders, here are some of America’s weirdest animals and where you can find them.

Nutria

Weird animal facts: These invasive rats wreak havoc in wetlands. Nutrias use their massive teeth for grazing, and their feeding habits negatively impact biodiversity. Some people eat these critters or use their fur for clothing.

Where to find it: Gulf Coast states, California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Northeast. See a full map here.

A light brown rat-like creature in grass. — *Photo by Eugene Obrezkov*

Gila monster

Weird animal facts: Monsters are real. Or, at least, Gila monsters are. These venomous lizards prefer semiarid desert environments and can live at an elevation of up to 5,000 feet. While a Gila monster bite can be fatal to humans, the venom is sometimes used in diabetes medication.

Where to find it: Southern California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah.

A black and white lizard. — *Photo by Eden, Janine and Jim*

Weird animal facts: Anglers can only dream of catching fish the size of an alligator gar. They can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh up to 350 pounds.

Where to find it: Parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Florida.

Two people on a boat holding a giant fish. — *Photo by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission*

Hellbender

Weird animal facts: The nocturnal hellbender might sound like a cool animal, but they’re also known by a less cool name, snot otter. These slimy critters can bite, but they’re not poisonous or a threat to humans.

Where to find it: From New York to Alabama and in parts of Missouri.

A slimy, frilled water lizard. — *Photo by T. Hall via Virginia State Parks*

Jaguarundi

Weird animal facts: What is a jaguarundi? This shy and solitary animal is a medium-sized wild cat with a long tail. Oh, and they often cause problems for farmers by stealing and eating their chickens.

Where to find it: Though possibly extinct in the U.S., a jaguarundi population is reported to exist in the southernmost tip of Texas.

Left: an orange wild cat sitting and looking ahead. Right: the same cat licking its lips. — *Photo by Tambako The Jaguar*

Angler catches a ‘river monster’ from the River of Death

An angler landed a prehistoric fish that has survived in the nasty waters of the Trinity River near Dallas, unlike other fish species.

Fisherman Alberto Flores stated he was “chasing river monsters” and managed to hook one Sunday near Dallas in the West Fork of the Trinity River, also referred to as the River of Death.

Flores landed a 5-foot-plus alligator gar, a prehistoric fish that has survived in the nasty waters of the Trinity, unlike other fish species.

The Trinity River is so polluted it earned the “River of Death” nickname because more than 1 million fish have died in its waters over a 15-year period, as reported by Chron.

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“Decades of pollution and mass death of other species have yet to vanquish this uniquely ancient and resilient fish,” Chron stated.

Flores posted video of his catch on TikTok. (Note: The video doesn’t appear on some media platforms, in which case you’ll need to go to the link to view it.)

@albertoflores5264

Chasing river monsters 🦖🔥🔥🔥 check out the “Fishin is my addiction”Angler Fever dry fit t-shirt💧💧💧#fyp #anglerfever #fishtok #outdoors #alligatorgar #fishing #pescando #dallas #tx #letemgoletemgrow #madkatz

♬ original sound – albertoflores5264

“This girl put up a beautiful fight, beautiful fish,” Flores said in the video. “I think she’s ready to go back, so we’re going to get her back into the water.”

He carried the alligator gar to the edge of the dirty river, put it down on the bank and the fish slithered its way back home.

One commenter on TikTok asked Flores, “That’s good eating, why did you put it back in?”

His reply: “We don’t eat fish out of the Trinity River.”

Rare black alligator gar caught on a fly designed for redfish

A Texas angler received a major surprise last week when he hooked an extremely rare black alligator gar while casting a homemade fly designed to catch redfish.

A Texas angler received a major surprise last week when he hooked a rare black alligator gar while casting a fly designed to catch redfish.

“It was very surprising once the fish surfaced to see that it was jet black, which I had never seen in all of the alligator gar I had seen,” Justin Jordan, owner of Lotus Guide Service, told FTW Outdoors.

Jordan and Terrell Maguire were fishing from a skiff in southeast Texas when they spotted a dark figure moving across the marsh. Jordan identified the 5-foot-long fish as a melanistic alligator gar, which went after Maguire’s fly moments after it had landed on the surface.

“We landed it, but I didn’t want to put it in my boat because they stink,” Jordan said of a prehistoric fish species that dates back 100 million years. (Gars are often referred to as “living fossils.”)

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Jordan shared images to Facebook on May 16, showing the gar half out of the water trying to shake the hook.

“Well… me and Terrell found out melanistic gar do exist yesterday,” he wrote.

Alligator gar are torpedo-shaped predators with toothy jaws and snouts that resemble those of alligators. They can measure 10 feet and weigh nearly 300 pounds.

The all-tackle world record, a 279-pound alligator gar caught in the Rio Grande, Texas, has stood since 1951.

The fish are typically olive-colored. Melanistic gar, whose skin contains an abnormally high level of a pigment called melanin, are rarely seen or caught.

And while alligator gar are popular among sport anglers, mostly because of their size and strength, their flesh is not highly regarded as table fare.

Jordan said the melanistic gar attacked a crab-like fly called a “spork,” made by his friend and fellow captain, Collin Scoville.

“It was definitely the wrong fly for gar,” Jordan said. “And it’s kind of an ongoing joke because the ‘spork’ fly literally has caught almost every game species in the Gulf Coast marsh.”

Angler lands huge alligator gar in Houston in ‘meaningful’ catch

A fisherman in Houston who learned to fish downtown’s Buffalo Bayou while in college made what some might call a surprising catch.

A fisherman who grew up in Houston and learned to fish the downtown waterway known as the Buffalo Bayou while attending the University of Houston-Downtown made what some might call a surprising catch.

After a half-hour battle, Alex Sosa, 27, pulled into his boat an alligator gar that measured nearly 6-feet long and weighed an estimated 130 pounds. He caught it inside the 610 Loop that surrounds downtown Houston, and he had several witnesses, which made the catch all the more meaningful.

“Being able to share that moment with everyone who stopped to ask questions and take pictures is what reminded me why I love fishing,” Sosa told the Houston Chronicle, the first to report the catch, which was made in November. “If [I] were to have been alone, and not have been able to share it with anyone, the catch wouldn’t have been as meaningful.”

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Because he was using the head of a buffalo sucker fish that was a little bigger than a softball for bait, as he described to KTRK, Sosa knew when he got a bite it was a big fish.

“Here in Houston, most people don’t realize it but we are very fortunate to have our waterways the way they are,” Sosa told the Chronicle. “We tend to have a warmer water temperature so we tend to have giant fish swimming around all year.”

Though it was a personal best for Sosa, it wasn’t close to a state record set in the Rio Grande in 1951. That weighed 289 pounds and measured 7 feet, 9 inches.

Like all the fish he catches in the bayou, Sosa released the alligator gar, and it swam away unharmed.

Photos courtesy of Alex Sosa.

Kayak fisherman nearly toppled by 200-pound alligator gar

A kayak fisherman came close to being tipped over by the 200-pound alligator gar he battled for 40 minutes in a south Texas river.

A kayak fisherman in south Texas came close to being tipped over by the 200-pound alligator gar he battled for 40 minutes before paddling one-handed to shore and landing the prehistoric fish.

The 7-foot alligator gar was the biggest Chris Hernandez had ever caught and it was almost too much to handle.

Hernandez told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors he was fishing a river on the outskirts of his hometown of Benito when he landed the alligator gar last week.

At one point, it became a bit scary when the fish slammed his kayak with its tail.

“It was just a quick flip from the tail that hit my yak causing my yak to shake back and forth,” Hernandez told For The Win Outdoors. “If my yak would’ve tilted a couple more inches, it would’ve took in water.

“At one point my rod was halfway in the water while the gar was taking line. My upper body was [so] tired that I thought I was going to lose my rod to this dinosaur of a gar.”

Hernandez told MySanAntonio the fish “was dragging me all over the river.”

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Since there was no way he was going to pull the fish onto his kayak, Hernandez used one hand to paddle to shore as he held on to his fishing rod. A friend helped him through branches on the bank so he could to land the gar.

“This was an awesome experience and an awesome joy ride on the yak,” Hernandez wrote on his Facebook page. “Man, the heart was really pumping.”

Alligator gar are often referred to as “living fossils” because scientists can trace them back 100 million years in the fossil record, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They can grow up to 10 feet and 350 pounds.

Hernandez is probably lucky not to have hooked one that big.

Photos courtesy of Chris Hernandez.

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