‘Living fossil’ alligator gar caught in Kansas for first time. How did it get here?

A “living fossil” not native to Kansas was recently caught in a southeastern river, but how it got there is a mystery.

Now, state fisheries biologists can’t help but ask, “What’s an alligator gar doing in the Neosho River?”

It’s a question the wildlife experts want to answer.

The 4.5-foot, 39.5-pound alligator gar was caught last month by an angler fishing east of Parsons, in the southeast corner of Kansas. It is the first recorded alligator gar to be caught in Kansas, according to a news release from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.

What is an alligator gar?

The predatory fish are sometimes called “living fossils,” experts say, because fossil records trace alligator gars back almost 100 million years.

They are the largest of the gar species, some weighing more than 300 pounds and growing over 8 feet long. As you might expect, an alligator gar can be “easily identified” by its broad snout, which “loosely resemble that of the American Alligator.”

And while longnose, shortnose and spotted gars are native to Kansas, the same cannot be said for alligator gar.

“Though not always common, alligator gar are distributed from southwestern Ohio and southeastern Missouri and Illinois, south to the Gulf of Mexico, and a small portion of northeastern Mexico,” according to the state wildlife department.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says alligator gar are classified as rare in Missouri, threatened in Illinois and endangered in Arkansas and Kentucky. Its population has “substantially decreased” over the last 50 years.

Alligator gar are “voracious ambush predators,” the wildlife agency says, mostly eating blue crabs, turtles, waterfowl and small mammals. And they live in “sluggish pools” and the back waters of rivers and other bodies of water, with preference for large rivers with a large overflow flood plain.

So, how did alligator gar get to Kansas?

“It’s a good question, and one KDWP Fisheries biologists are attempting to answer,” according to the news release.

To determine where this fish came from, biologists have a few options.

Because the alligator gar population is declining in many states, those states have been tagging any hatchery-produced alligator gar released into the wild. That’s why staff first used a “wand” to see if the fish had any identification markers.

The search was unsuccessful, which meant moving to plan B.

“Because most populations of this species can be distinguished from one another with a sample of the fish’s fins, another option we’re considering is genetic identification,” said Jeff Koch, assistant director of Fisheries. “This will tell us if the fish came from an existing population in another state.”

If genetic testing does not work, biologists would then try plan C — microchemistry. That consists of measuring the composition of the fish’s bone and comparing it to the surrounding water. If they find similarities, biologists may learn how long the fish has been swimming in the Neosho River.

“We’re confident the information from the angler is accurate and the fish was, in fact, caught from the Neosho River,” said Fisheries biologist Connor Ossowski. “However, that doesn’t mean the fish originated from the river.”

Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks believe there are many ways the giant fish could’ve ended up in the river, though experts believe there is one theory has the greatest chance of being true.

“It’s not unlikely that this fish was once somebody’s pet or purchased from a pet store, and simply released into the river once it became too large,” said Fisheries Division director Doug Nygren. “These techniques should allow us to determine which mode of introduction occurred.”

It is unlikely the gar made its way to Kansas naturally, the release says, as it would be a long way from the nearest alligator gar population in neighboring states. Even if it did separate from one of those groups, the fish would have had to make it through a series of dams.

Even still, experts are not ruling that out as an option.

Following the biologists’ research, the state department says it plans to publish its findings on its website and Facebook page.

This story was originally published October 12, 2021 at 2:06 PM with the headline "‘Living fossil’ alligator gar caught in Kansas for first time. How did it get here?."