Complete Guide To The American Alligator

American Alligator Notes

• American Alligators aquatic, carnivorous, powerful, and dangerous.
• They are active predators that submerge and either float motionlessly until prey wanders too close or slowly swim towards unwary prey.
  • Their broad snouts give them flat profiles, so that only their eyes and nostrils protrude above the surface while water hides the rest of their large bodies.
• American Alligators feed on prey taken in and under the water, like fish, turtles, frogs, and snakes, as well as prey taken from the land along the waters’ edge, like birds and mammals.
  • Adult American Alligators are large enough to take prey as large as White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus).
  • Alligator teeth are poorly adapted for ripping or chewing.
    • American Alligators swallow small prey whole in a series of gulps.
    • They stash large prey to decay and soften for several days, then return to feed. They twist off chunks of rotting flesh by clamping their teeth into the prey and spinning their bodies with their powerful limbs and tail.
• American Alligators hibernate in dens through the winter. Sometimes, these reptiles become locked into surface ice that freezes around their snouts, as their nostrils poke out of the water for air.
• They mate in early spring after they emerge from hibernation.
  • Males bellow to attract females while partially submerged.
    • The vibration from these bellows jostles the water and makes it “dance”.
  • Females reach adulthood and sexual maturity in approximately 8-10 years, while males take 12-15 years to do so (Grigg and Kirshner 2015).
• Females lay 25-60 hard-shelled eggs in nest mounds made of mud, leaves, and rotting organic vegetation (Behler and King 2020).
  • Alligator nests can be as large as 5 – 7 feet (1.5 – 2.1 meters) wide and 1.5 – 3 feet (46 – 91 cm) tall.
  • The rotting vegetation warms the eggs and helps the embryos develop.
  • Hatchling sex is determined by the temperature in the nest (see “temperature-dependent sex determination“):
    • Low incubation temperatures result in female hatchlings
    • Higher incubation temperatures result in male hatchlings
    • Hatchling sex is determined by approximately halfway through an embryo’s incubation (Grigg and Kirshner 2015).
• American Alligator embryos incubate over a period of nine weeks. During this time, the female alligators remain near the nest and aggressively defend their eggs from predators.
  • Baby alligators signal readiness to hatch by crying out while still inside their egg shells. In response, the attentive mother alligators tear the nests apart to expose the hatchlings as they fight free of their egg shells.
• Hatchlings are only about 9 – 10 inches (22.8 – 25.4 cm) long. Many fall prey to predators before reaching maturity and their full adult size, despite staying close to their mothers for 1-3 years after hatching (Behler and King 2020).
• Adult, fully grown American Alligators have no natural predators in North Carolina beyond humans.
  • In Florida, American Alligators are threatened by invasive Burmese Pythons, which are the only animals powerful enough to kill full-sized alligators.
    • The pythons wrap their body coils around the alligators and constrict; the alligators either suffocate or drown, depending on the location in which they are attacked.