Gator Country: An Undercover Dive Into Florida’s Alligator Poaching World
To catch a Florida poacher, one wildlife officer built a fake alligator farm, grew a ponytail, and spent years earning the trust of the Everglades’ most elusive outlaws.
Rebecca Renner’s Gator Country: Deception, Danger, and Alligators in the Everglades follows Officer Jeff Babauta’s transformation into a whiskey-soaked swamp dealer for Operation Alligator Thief, a years-long sting targeting illegal poaching rings deep in South Florida. Alongside Babauta’s undercover work, Renner traces the legend of Peg Brown, a decorated war hero turned lifelong gator hunter whose family called the Everglades home long before it became a national park. The line between hunter and poacher, it turns out, is murkier than swamp water.
A Florida native herself, Renner stumbled onto the story when a student mentioned alligator poaching in class. What started as curiosity became a deep dive into the moral gray zones of conservation, where poverty, tradition, and law collide. Named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of Amazon’s Best Books of 2023, it reads like a thriller but hits like a nature memoir.
