Alligator River NWR: October 2025
I have just returned from a short trip to Alligator National Wildlife Refuge in NC. This location has several trip reports already so I’ll be brief here.
I arrived just before sunrise and cruised Swan Lake road and the road just above it that runs next to the maintenance building. The only things I saw were harriers and people driving around. I then went down Long Curve road which has some corn fields that had been recently plowed. Most of the fields had at least one bear in it. One field had six bears. Most of the bears were far away but waiting near the fields with bears that appeared to be moving in a favorable direction eventually resulted in them getting close for a drink or sometimes crossing the road. I went to look for signs of nutria at Duck Town board walk. I did see their tracks and some walkers told me they could potentially be seen any time of day and are often there. I did not see them. In the evening, I went to Naggs Head Woods preserve to look for Nutria. The first dog walker I saw said he had not seen any. The second was a lady that told me she sometimes sees otters between 4 and 6pm. As fate would have it, it was 6pm. Just as the light became dim a nutria appeared. I suspect nutria are what she had been seeing rather than otters.
The next day I was rain and high wind so I did not go.
My final day in the NWR, I went out again just around sunrise. I began driving Swam Lake Road and the road above the maintenance building. On swam lake road, I initially saw three bears and a deer although oddly in subsequent passes I never saw the bears again. I did however see three wolves. The first sighting was around 8 am in a field on Swan Lake road. An additional two wolves were seen on the maintenance building road. I spoke with another gentleman who told me he had seen pups that AM.
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