Alligator hit by car and given only 5% chance to live released back into wild on Jekyll Island

JEKYLL ISLAND, Ga. — An alligator that once had a slim chance of survival after being hit by a car is now healthy and back in the wild.

Researchers released “Captain Hook” into a pond on Jekyll Island in April.

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The Jekyll Island Authority Conversation Department found the baby alligator after a car hit him 10 months ago. The crash left the creature with a broken jawbone, broken cheekbone and fractured neck vertebrae.

Rescuers also found a fishhook inside his stomach that required endoscopy to remove it.

They gave him only a 5% chance to survive. But after months of recovery time, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center staff nursed Captain Hook back to health.

As he recovered, the center fed Captain Hook a diet of small fish, mice, crabs and insects to help him gain weight. At the time of his release, they got him up to 13.6 pounds.

Researchers officially released him back into the wild on April 24 fitted with a new GPS transmitter so the Jekyll Island Conservation Team can track him every week.

The staff works with the turtle center to monitor population size, movements, reproduction and health for alligators species in Georgia.

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Channel 2 Action News previously showed you how alligator tracking works as we tagged along with UGA PhD students and researchers.

We went out with the group on a remote lake just over the Georgia-South Carolina border to understand how changes in the earth’s temperature may impact reptiles.

Read more about what the researchers found here.

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