By The carnivorous Alligator Gar, an invasive fish species that grows to a length of 9 feet and weighs about 300 pounds, is posing a serious threat of spreading in the Kandy Lake, thus endangering the biodiversity of the ecological zone surrounding the lake.
Environmentalists warn that if these fish are not promptly removed from the lake, their predation on, not only fish, but also birds, will lead to a further increase in the alligator population, making it uncontrollable.
Alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) are ray-finned euryhaline fish related to bowfin in the infraclass Holostei (ho’-las-te-i). The fossil record traces their existence to the Early Cretaceous over a hundred million years ago. They are the largest species in the gar family, and among the largest freshwater fishes in North America. Gars are often referred to as “primitive fishes”, or “living fossils” because they have retained some morphological characteristics of their earliest ancestors
