environmental factors affect reproduction. And that led to
his Ph.D. studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder. His
dissertation was on the very curious reproductive behavior of
high altitude lizards in Mexico: lizards living on one side of a
valley laid eggs, whereas the same species on the other side of
the valley had live births.
After Colorado, Lou joined the University of Florida’s
Biology Department in 1985 as an assistant professor.
One day a biologist from the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission, Allan Woodward, knocked on his
lab door and asked Lou what he knew about the reproductive
biology of the American alligator. The alligator population in
Florida at the time was seriously threatened by development
and was beginning to collapse. The species needed to
be brought back from the edge. The problem was that
neither Lou nor the people at the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission knew much about alligator
biology. Indeed, in the 1980s surprisingly little was known
about this ancient species.
The first problem in studying alligators was to learn how to
catch the animals safely and how to take measurements and
samples. This was accomplished eventually, and Lou and his
team can now safely capture an animal, obtain blood, urine,
and scale samples, take various measurements, and install
a PIT tag in about 20 minutes. The animals are not harmed,
but they do acquire a healthy fear of humans. The latter is
good because that particular animal is less likely to become a
nuisance to tourists or residents.
As Lou and his students collected data in Florida he began
to see reproductive abnormalities such as elevated hormone
levels and abnormal reproductive organs. The origin of these
effects was explained when he heard about early research on
endocrine disrupters. These chemicals can fool a body into
performing a function too little, too much, or at the wrong
time. In the case of Florida’s alligators, it was environmental
contaminants that were the culprit. Among other effects,
they caused male alligators to produce too little testosterone.
Louis J Guillette, Jr.
Photo by Russ Lowers
Many more studies followed and showed that environmental
pollutants can indeed lead to reproductive abnormalities.
Alligators are a keystone species in Lou’s study of
endocrine disruptors. These animals are a top predator, and
they can reproduce through much of their 70–80 year life
span. They also do not move around much during their
lifetime (which means some alligators here on Kiawah Island
may have been here since before large scale development
began). Because of these characteristics, reproductive
abnormalities in alligators could signal an unhealthy local
environment for them and for us.
The research Dr. Guillette is conducting on Kiawah is part
of a much larger study, which encompasses the ACE Basin,
Georgetown, and sites all the way south to the Kennedy Space
Center. He plans to capture and examine approximately 40
alligators each year on Kiawah Island during the initial phase
of his study. So far his team includes graduate students and
his son Matt from Hollings Marine Laboratory, Town of
Kiawah Island biologists, (Aaron Given and Jim Jordan),
and Matt Hill from the KICA Lakes division.
Lou’s wife, Elizabeth or “Buzzy,” is also a noted scientist
and anthropologist. She too is interested in the effects
of environmental contaminants, particularly on human
reproduction and on the growth and development of children.
She is well-known for an important study of pesticide effects
in Mexico as well as of heavy metal poisoning in Japan and
of second generation effects of the Bhopal chemical spill.
While Buzzy pursued her Ph.D., the Guillettes and their son
Matt, then only nine, lived for a year in a small village outside
Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. Her work, together with
Lou’s, has led to restrictions on pesticide use here and in
Canada in particular.
Dr. Guillette’s research takes him all over the world, and
he provides advice for programs in New Zealand, Australia,
Mexico, South Africa, and Botswana. When he is not busy
capturing alligators he enjoys woodworking and is an
accomplished photographer. NK
Lou and Elizabeth (“Buzzy”) Guillette
Photo by Louis Guillette
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