A rarely witnessed congregation of American alligators was recorded in southeast Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp, and researchers are trying to figure out why it happened.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources Board on Tuesday voted to limit future ownership of Burmese pythons, along with Indian rock pythons, Argentine black and white tegus, Nile monitor lizards, African helmeted turtles and Chinese softshell turtles.

Georgia is home to 83 species of turtles, lizards, snakes and the alligator, and most live on the coast.

Geneticists at the University of Georgia have accomplished the first ever editing of the gen es of a lizard with the gene editing tool CRISPR. The...