Lions and alligators and wolves — oh, my!

Thanks to conservation efforts by environmentalists, sightings of “large predators” in places where they “shouldn’t be” have increased in recent years, according to new research by Duke University.

“We can no longer chalk up a large alligator on a beach or coral reef as an aberrant sighting,” Brian Silliman, a professor of marine conservation biology at Duke, writes in a press release. “It’s the old norm, the way it used to be before we pushed these species onto their last legs in hard-to-reach refuges. Now, they are returning.”

Researchers combed through data from recent studies and government reports. They found that a number of large animals, including gray wolves, alligators, eagles and whales, could be as abundant in unusual habitats as they are in what we consider to be their traditional territories.

This new finding refutes the idea that animals can only thrive in specific environments.

“[T]his is based on studies and observations made while these populations were in sharp decline,” Silliman says. “Now that [large predators] are rebounding, they’re surprising us by demonstrating how adaptable and cosmopolitan they really are.”

But it’s not all alligators ruining your family beach vacations. Sea otters are among this list of adaptable predators — and they’re even helping balance out the food chain in the new seabeds they’ve moved into.

“It would cost tens of millions of dollars” for humans to “protect these beds” in a similar way, Silliman said. “But sea otters are achieving a similar result on their own, at little or no cost to taxpayers.”

Let’s hope the toothier species pull their weight, too.