Alligators

By Chi-Lok Li

Table of Contents

• Question and Answer Pages

• Reference Page

• Fast Facts Page

• About Me Page

Where do alligators live?

• The American alligator is found from North Carolina to the Rio Grande in Texas.

Alligators are usually found in freshwater, in slow-moving rivers. They are also found in swamps, marshes, and lakes. They can tolerate salt water for only brief periods because they do not have salt glands.

How does the alligator look like?

• The average size for an adult female American alligator is 8.2 feet (2.6 m), and the average size for a male is 11.2 feet (3.4 m). Exceptionally large males can reach a weight of nearly half a ton or 1,000 pounds.

• Both males and females have an "armored" body with a muscular flat tail. The skin on the back is armored with embedded bony plates called osteoderms or scutes. They have four short legs; the front legs have five toes while the back legs have four toes.

• Alligators have a long snout with upward facing nostrils at the end; this lets them breathe while the rest of the body is underwater. The young can be distinguished from adults by the bright yellow stripes on the tail; adults have dark stripes on the tail.

What do alligators eat?Crocodilians are carnivorous. They have very strong jaws that can crack a turtle shell. They eat fish, snails and other invertebrates, birds, frogs, and mammals that come to the water's edge. They use their sharp teeth to seize and hold prey. Small prey is swallowed whole. If the prey is large, crocodilians shake it apart into smaller, manageable pieces. If it is very large, crocodilians bite it, then spin on the long axis of their bodies to tear off easily swallowed pieces.

How long do alligators live?

• American alligators may live to about 50 years in the wild. After it is four feet long, an alligator is safe from predators except humans and occasionally other alligators.

How do alligators reproduce?

• After mating, the female builds a nest of vegetation. The nest measures seven to ten feet (2.1 to 3 m) in diameter and is two to three feet (.6 to .9 m) high. Then, around late June and early July, the female lays 35 to 50 eggs. Some females lay up to 90 eggs. The eggs are then covered with the vegetation nest through the 65-day incubation period. The sex of the juveniles is determined by the temperature of the nest: above 93° F (33.8° C) all are male, below 86° F (30° C) all are female, and temperatures in between will produce both sexes. Red-bellied sliders may sometimes deposit their eggs in alligator nests.

References• http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ReptilesAmphibians/Facts/FactSheets/Americanalligator.

cfm• West Nashville Gringo (© All Rights reserved)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65777587@N00/358301947• Joseph Dath (© All Rights reserved)

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Fast Facts

• The alligator became the official state reptile of Florida in 1987.

• The alligator family includes the American and Chinese alligators and all caimans. Spanish sailors visiting the New World thought the unfamiliar alligator was a huge lizard. In Spanish, el lagarto means the lizard. English sailors took the name as allagarter and in time it has become alligator.

• Alligators are hunted mostly for their skins, but also they are hunted for meat. Today, there is a multi-million dollar industry in which alligators are raised in captivity for the production of meat and skin. Also, alligators are a tourist attraction, especially in Florida, where visitors enjoy feeding them.

About Me Page

• My name is Chi-Lok.

• I love to play video games!