Alligators

For the past 65 million years, alligator mississippiensis, the American alligator, has existed virtually unchanged. What has enabled it to survive from its 45 foot long crocodilian ancestor that scuttled about with dinosaurs, to the alligator that now lurks in southeastern U.S. coastal swamps, lakes, rivers, marshlands, and even drainage canals?

Is it the alligator’s uncanny ability to remain motionless for hours on end in swampy surroundings covered with green duckweed.  Alligators often look like floating logs--their entire bodies submerged with only their eyes breaking the surface of the murky waters--eyes that possess the acute vision of an owl’s. When an alligator sinks beneath the waterline, a transparent ‘third eyelid’ slides across its eyes, protecting them and allowing the alligator to see underwater.

Even the alligator’s spiny back - covered with bony plates called scutes - and its tail are concealed in the dense duckweed that coats the surface of many ponds. With just one strong swipe of this reptile’s mighty tail, a tail that measures half the length of its body by the way, the alligator can knock unsuspecting prey off balance, lunge at it in the water, and after drowning it, consume its prey whole. The alligator’s tail can also be used to propel it up to five feet out of the water to snatch a meal on land.

Maybe it’s the alligator ability to keep breathing while chomping on its meal. When the alligator bites down, a valve snaps shut at the back of its mouth, preventing water from getting into the alligator’s throat and lungs. And even with large prey in its mouth, the alligator can still pull air into its long nostrils, which stretch deep into its throat, without ever loosening those powerful jaws. Those jaws contain 70 to 80 cone-shaped teeth which the alligator can replace when they fall out.

Or perhaps it’s the female alligator’s fierce protective instinct over her yellow-striped young that enables them to mature to breeding age. By the time alligators reach 10-15 years old, other than humans they have no natural enemies. A female builds a large mound of sticks, mud, and grasses where she deposits 30-50 oblong white eggs.

In approximately 65 days, young hatchlings emerge, and the mother alligator carries them - sometimes 8 to 10 at once - to a nearby pond, where they group together in a pod for added protection. A stay-away warning  from a female cow is an additional  deterrent to would-be predators!    
(sound clip here: www.fws.gov/video/sound.htm)

Black dots along the alligator’s upper and lower jaw enable it to detect anything disturbing the water around it. In addition to its eyes and ears, these sensors allow the alligator to respond swiftly to intruders or prey.

The alligator’s non-selective diet has definitely contributed to the survival of this species for 65 million years. Its slow digestive system, which requires only one pound of food per week, and the ability to fast for up to two years by utilizing the fat stored in its tail, make survival even more certain.  The nocturnal alligator feeds on snakes, frogs, turtles, fish, birds, raccoons, even deer, other alligators and trespassing animals. The larger the alligator, the larger the prey, the faster the alligator grows. When food is plentiful, alligators can grow as much as a foot per year! The largest alligator ever recorded was found in Louisiana – it was a whopping 19 feet 2 inches!  (That’s longer than a pickup truck!)

Perhaps it’s also the territorial instinct of the male alligator that enable it to survive. The male bull’s deep guttural bellowing serves as a warning to other bulls and as a mating call to females. The echo of a bull’s bellowing is often heard at dawn in the fresh water swamps and throughout the spring breeding season.                 (sound clip here: www.fws.gov/video/sound.htm)

Or is it the alligator’s incredible speed that enables it to continue its 65 million-year journey? Powerful legs, strong clawed feet, and a muscular tail enable the alligator to move at 30 miles per hour for 50 to 60 feet. (The fastest human sprinters run at 20 miles per hour!) Don’t ever underestimate the speed bursts of this overweight sunbathing reptile!  An alligator can easily outrun a human for short distances.

The alligator’s ability to regulate its body temperature has aided in its survival. To warm up, they bask on sunny banks. To maintain a body temperature of about 86 degrees in the south’s seering summers, alligators use their claws, tails, and powerful snouts to excavate in the mud, and get close to the water for survival. These ‘gator holes’ not only sustain alligators, but they provide a mini eco-system for fish, turtles, and even snails during hot, dry spells. Small gator holes evolve into ponds over a period of years. In this way, alligators play a vital role in maintaining the wetlands of the southeastern United States.

Hibernation deep in the mud in the winter slows down the alligator’s metabolism, and also allows it to exist without food for months.

Survival of the fittest! Through diet, camouflage, protectiveness, brute strength, adaptation to hot and cold, and use of their keen senses, American alligators have become 65 million year survivors. We should marvel at them and observe them from afar. After all, it’s their planet too!