American Alligator
American Alligator
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COMMON NAME: |
American Alligator. |
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LATIN NAME: |
Alligator mississipiensis |
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FOOD: |
Small alligators will eat snails, frogs, insects, and small fish. Larger gators will eat fish, turtles, snakes, waterfowl, small mammals, and even smaller alligators. |
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HABITAT: |
Fresh water to brackish water areas, although they can occasionally be found in salt water. |
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LOCALITY: |
Southeastern part of the United States, from the Carolinas, down to Florida and over to Texas. |
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LENGTH: |
4 metres |
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BEHAVIOUR: |
Alligators can be quite vocal, and will hiss at intruders. During the mating season they also make sounds at a frequency to low for humans to hear. Their main threat at one time was humans, who hunted them almost to extinction just to use their hides for clothes and accessories: coats, shoes, purses, wallets, etc. Today hunting is prohibited. Another indirect cause to their dwindling population was their use as pets; when they got too big they were given to zoos, killed, or released into the sewer system. |
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DEVELOPMENT: |
An alligator is generally considered sexually mature when it reaches a length of 4 metres or more. Breeding season begins in April, during which time the courtship rituals begin. After mating, the female alligator moves into the marshy areas and shoreline where she will begin to construct a nest;. Into this mound she will deposit her eggs, and it is the breakdown of the nesting material that helps keep the eggs warm. Female alligators begin to lay their eggs in late June and early July. Alligators tend to lay about 40-45 eggs on the average, however, the rate of fertility varies with the age of the female. The incubation period of the eggs is 65 days. During this time the female alligator guards her nest against intruders. The eggs begin to hatch in August through September, during which time the baby alligators make-high pitched grunting noises to alert the mother gator. The female alligator will then uncover the nest releasing the babies, and some females have even been known to carry their young to the water. Until the next breeding season begins, the female alligator will remain near her brood, defending them against predators. |
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DESCRIPTION: |
American alligators are generally a dark bluish, green, or brown in colour when fully grown. The juveniles are black with bright yellow crossbands. As the young grow, these bands disappear. Across the back is a protective armour underneath the leathery skin. These form rows of bony knobs, which disappear at the tail and are replaced by two rows of longer triangular knobs, which then converge in the center of the tail to form one row which gets smaller the farther down the tail it goes. |
