Why are these alligators orange? It's research that will help in the study of GenX

Researchers from North Carolina State University are capturing, testing and studying alligators across the state to study the effects of GenX.

The NC State team is focusing on perfluorinated compounds (PFAs) related to GenX in their study and is a part of a PFA testing network, a group consisting of researchers from universities across the state studying the health effects GenX and other chemicals have on people.

The researchers decided to use alligators for their experiment because they can indicate health effects that humans may experience based on exposure.

Once the alligators are studied, they will be marked with a harmless, orange wax to make them stand out from alligators that have not been studied. The substance will only remain on the alligator for two or three weeks and will not harm the reptile.

But catching the alligators in order to test them tended to be challenging for the researchers.

"We typically have to use frog bait or a little lure just to get them a little bit closer," Dr. Theresa Guillett said.

The researchers will do what they consider to be a typical vet check-up on the alligators they catch, which only lasts between 10-15 minutes.

"We immediately take a blood sample, so we can get good indicators of hormones and other chemistry from their blood," Scott Belcher, research professor at NC State said. "Then, immediately measure them, determine their sex, and then we let them go, right back into Greenfield Lake."

So far, the results have indicated that alligators in Greenfield Lake in Wilmington have, on average, 10 times higher concentrations of PFAs in their blood than alligators in Lake Waccamaw, 40 minutes west of Greenfield Lake.

The researchers plan to submit their findings to state regulators.