The ‘Spew Crew’ takes to labs and the Lowcountry to investigate alligator diets and gain hands-on experience
Football has always been king at Clemson University, as it is in most Southern states. But humans aren’t the only Southerners who are taking in some football. During a recent lab analysis, Clemson doctoral student Miriam Boucher Ph.D. ’27 and a group of undergraduate students discovered a football inside the stomach of an alligator from Alabama.
The discovery was part of research conducted by students in Belly of the Beast: Diet and Microplastics in the American Alligator, a Creative Inquiry (CI) course. In the course, undergraduate students work with Boucher to apply ecotoxicology, the study of toxic pollutants and how they affect the environment and its inhabitants, to American alligators.
“The reason we’re looking at diet is because diet is one of the primary exposure pathways to contaminants,” explained Boucher, a graduate research assistant at Clemson’s Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science.
To source alligator samples — including stomachs, blood and muscle from legally hunted alligators — Boucher collaborates with federal agencies, private organizations, game processors and sporting communities from nine states. Boucher’s 12 CI students, nicknamed the “Spew Crew,” prep and analyze the samples for microplastic analysis in the lab. Students also gain hands-on experience by capturing and sampling alligators in North and South Carolina each semester.
This Spring, the group traveled to Georgetown, South Carolina, to capture and tag alligators, plus collect blood and muscle samples, with the state’s Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR). They stayed at the Baruch Institute, an ecological research center on a 16,000-acre tract of undeveloped lowcountry owned by the Belle W. Baruch Foundation, which has a research lab with microplastic instruments and serves as a launch site to the Santee Coastal Reserve.
At the reserve, students got to work, superficially hooking alligators using fishing rods equipped with debarbed snatch hooks. Once they reeled in the alligators from the water, the students pulled them ashore and taped their mouths closed. Participants then took blood samples, tagged alligators and collected scute (scale) samples from the tails.
“They worked hard and got down and dirty,” said Morgan Hart, alligator project leader for SCDNR. “They followed the rules and did everything we asked them to do. It’s fantastic to get Clemson students out to help us with this important work that we do. Having this many students who are really dedicated and willing to get out there and get muddy and do the work helps us so much.”
The biggest catch during this trip went to senior Audrey Fleming ’26, a biological sciences major from Richmond, Virginia. Fleming fought an alligator for almost 30 minutes before seeing its mammoth head emerge from the water. Once it was noosed, it took nearly the entire class to get it ashore. The alligator measured 11 feet long.
“I was honestly thinking, ‘Is this going to pull me into the water?’ I was getting really tired,” Fleming said. “My forearms were cramping, legs were shaking. I had to use my whole body to pull it up. That was an unexpected and cool catch. I was just thinking I might get a little one.”
Julia Creswell ’27, a junior from Greenwood, South Carolina, is a chemical engineering major. After working on a high school project with Boucher as her mentor, Creswell sought out the doctoral student after arriving at Clemson, asking if she could join the CI.
Being involved in research that helps the environment has left a favorable impression on Creswell.
“Just seeing the microplastics in our water and how they affect us, I think this has given me a care for the environment and for our natural world around us,” she said. “Chemical engineers, we usually go into plastics and oil and gas. It may have kind of shifted my perspective in that conservation is important and we need to understand what we’re doing and how we’re affecting our environment. I think I’ll take that into my own work experience.”
James Collins ’26, a senior forest resource management major with a minor in wildlife and fisheries biology, had a different perspective.
“I know that I really want to do this because I now have this experience handling alligators, handling powerful large animals,” he said. “For those who are hesitant to join a CI, I would just do it anyway because this is one of the best ways for students to gain experience.”
Since the Creative Inquiry began in Fall 2023, graduate research assistant Miriam Boucher and her students have built up an interesting collection of items found in alligator bellies. Aside from the football, they have a whole spotted gar and a whole large carp, bobcat claws, shotgun shell casings, plastic wrapping from a turkey, deer and feral hog hooves, parts of coyotes, cats, and several whole turtles and snakes. They also have a chip from an indigenous spear or arrowhead and a growing rock and sea glass collection.
The More You Know: Alligator Stomachs and Human Health
When Boucher and the undergraduate researchers analyze alligator stomachs, they can see what kinds of microplastics are ingested by the alligators. Since the muscle is the part of alligators consumed by humans, blood and muscle samples allow researchers to see what’s in the muscle — and what people might be eating.
“It’s important because plastics themselves have different toxic components,” Boucher said. “When they’re ingested, they can cause blockages or irritations. On the surface, they can absorb and concentrate other contaminants in the environment. Also, the plastics themselves can have additives and toxic components that can cause cancers, can cause birth defects. There’s concern about what they do to us. That side of science is still emerging.”
Jim Anderson, director of Clemson’s Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science and the James C. Kennedy Waterfowl and Wetlands Conservation Center, appreciates the growth in Boucher’s research.
“Miriam’s knowledge of crocodilian life history is immense, and her comprehension of ecotoxicology and physiology has grown substantially since the start of her doctoral studies,” Anderson said. “Her command of the field site is unparalleled, and she always ensures the safety of herself, her field assistants and the animal. Miriam is undertaking an impactful, ambitious and meaningful study that will influence wetland and alligator conservation and management across the region.”
