Both are found in freshwater wetland areas. An estimated 5 million American alligators are spread out across the southeastern United States. Roughly 1.25 million alligators live in the state of Florida. There are more than 1,000 American crocodiles, not including hatchlings, in Florida.[1]
How Much Does An American Alligator
Alligator. It may be hard to believe that it’s legal to own an alligator, but it is in some states. In Alabama, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wisconsin, you don’t even need a permit or license. You can purchase a baby alligator for prices ranging from about $149 to $169 (not including shipping).Apr 16, 2021[2]
How Strong Is A American Alligator?
Alligator jaw muscles have little strength for opening their mouth, but the muscles that shut them are very strong and have awesome force, about 300 pounds per square inch in an adult. Alligators do not require as much food as we do. In the summer a large alligator may only eat once or twice a week.[3]
What Does An American Alligator Eat?
Their diets include prey species that are abundant and easily accessible. Juvenile alligators eat primarily insects, amphibians, small fish, and other invertebrates. Adult alligators eat rough fish, snakes, turtles, small mammals, and birds.[4]
Do American Alligators Make Good Pets?
If you like to dress up your pets, an alligator is probably not the right pet for you. Alligators don’t like to fetch. In fact, they lay around a lot, especially when it’s cold outside and the sun is warm. Alligators have great hearing but they often won’t answer to their names.[5]
Are American Alligators Rare?
American alligators were once threatened by extinction, but after being placed on the endangered species list in 1967, their population increased. This species is now classified as least concern.[6]
What Is The Function Of An American Alligator
Alligators play an important role as ecosystem engineers (keystone species) in wetland marsh ecosystems through the creation of alligator holes, which provide both wet and dry refuges for other organisms such as invertebrates, fish, amphibians, turtles, snakes, birds, and mammals.Sep 12, 2019[7]
What Are The Functions Of An Alligator?
Alligators play an important role in maintaining ecosystem balance. Sitting at the top of the food chain, alligators are apex predators and help keep other animal populations in balance. By digging holes and leaving trails throughout marshes, they create habitats for fish and marine invertebrates.Jun 28, 2016[8]
Why Is The American Alligator Important?
American alligators are important members of their ecosystem, and are regarded as keystone species. Many animals are affected by their existence. Young alligators are prey for wading birds, turtles, snakes, mammals, and larger alligators. Alligators over 4 feet long are at the top of their food chain.[9]
What Do American Alligators Do For The Environment?
Ecologically, alligators are important predators and create important habitat for other wildlife by digging holes that hold water during droughts. Range and habitat: Alligators occur on the Atlantic Coast of North America from Florida through coastal North Carolina, and along the Gulf Coast into Texas.[10]
What Is The Role Of The American Alligator As A Keystone Species?
Alligators are considered “keystone species”, a species that helps to fashion its environment and influence the types of species that live there. Alligators perform necessary services like providing fresh water for other wildlife to drink during droughts by digging “gator holes” that bring groundwater to the surface.[11]
How Does The American Alligator Get Its Food
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. They swallow small prey whole. If the prey is large, they shake it apart into smaller, manageable pieces.[12]
What Does The American Alligator Eat?
Juvenile alligators eat primarily insects, amphibians, small fish, and other invertebrates. Adult alligators eat rough fish, snakes, turtles, small mammals, and birds.[13]
How Do Crocodile Get Their Food?
Crocodiles will swallow their food whole if it’s small enough but will use their powerful teeth and jaws to crush and break up larger prey or to splinter the hard outer shell of a crab or a turtle. Nile crocodiles like this one will eat buffaloes and occasionally people, although humans are not their natural prey.[14]
How Often Does The American Alligator Eat?
Once a week is a typical feeding schedule for alligators living in the wild. Excess calories are stored in fat deposits at the base of the alligator’s tail. Incredibly, by burning fat reserves, it is possible for an alligator to last more than two years between feedings.[15]
How Does An American Alligator Get Energy?
As a lizard the alligator is cold blooded, meaning it gains its body heat directly from its surrounding environment. As warm blooded creatures, you and I require food to maintain our internal body temperatures. The alligator however is able to draw most of it energy directly from the sun.[16]
Why The American Alligator Is Endangered
This large-scale hunting and poaching, along with loss of habitat, reduced the alligator population so dramatically that it was on the brink of extinction. In 1967, the alligator was listed as an endangered species, and was considered in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.[17]
Why Was The American Alligator Declared Endangered In 1967?
The American alligator was first listed as endangered in 1967, due to poorly regulated hunting and habitat loss. It was among the landmark “Class of ’67,” the first class of 78 species to warrant federal protection under the precursor to the existing endangered species law.Jun 4, 2012[18]
What Threatens The American Alligator?
The main threat facing the American alligator is the destruction and degradation of wetland habitat. Destruction of wetlands frequently occurs in association with human development.[19]
Is The American Alligator Protected?
In 1973 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the American alligator to be protected under the Endangered Species Act, which had been passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President Nixon. Under the ESA, alligators could not be killed wherever they lived within their geographic range.[20]
Why Should We Protect The American Alligator
As alligators move from gator holes to nesting mounds, they help keep areas of open water free of invading vegetation. Without these ecosystem services, freshwater ponds and shrubs and trees would fill in coastal wetlands in the alligator’s habitat, and dozens of species would disappear.[21]
Why Are Alligators So Important?
Alligators play an important role in maintaining ecosystem balance. Sitting at the top of the food chain, alligators are apex predators and help keep other animal populations in balance. By digging holes and leaving trails throughout marshes, they create habitats for fish and marine invertebrates.[22]
What Would Happen If The American Alligator Was Removed?
If alligators are removed from their native ecosystem, it would affect countless other species. As an American alligator’s teeth wear down or fall out, new ones come in. An alligator can go through 3,000 teeth in a lifetime.[23]
Why Is The American Alligator Important To Florida?
As the top predator of the Everglades, says Rosenblatt, alligators have a large impact on the ecosystem through their interactions with and consumption of other animals. He notes that in addition to its importance to recreation and tourism, the Everglades are the primary drinking source for South Floridians.Jun 4, 2012[24]
How Can We Protect The American Alligator?
Concerted conservation efforts prevailed, however, and the creature was removed from the Endangered Species List in 1987. Over a million now live in the wild. The Nature Conservancy is helping to further protect these incredible reptiles by conserving and restoring the wetland habitats on which alligators depend.Apr 12, 2020[25]
How Scientosts Came Up With The Species Name Of American Alligator
American alligator – Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › American_alligator[26]
How Did The American Alligator Get Its Name?
Description. The American alligator is one of the largest reptiles in North America. The name alligator comes from early Spanish explorers who called them ‘el legarto’ or ‘big lizard’ when they first saw these giant reptiles.[27]
What Did The American Alligator Evolve From?
The first alligator ancestors evolved some 245 million years ago. About 80 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, crocodilians appeared. This group includes alligatoroids, such as Brachychampsa, as well as their close relatives the crocodiles and caimans.[28]
How Do People Help The American Alligator In The Everglades National Park
American Alligator: Species Profile – Everglades National Park (U.S. …www.nps.gov › ever › learn › nature › alligator[29]
What Is Being Done To Protect The American Alligator?
Concerted conservation efforts prevailed, however, and the creature was removed from the Endangered Species List in 1987. Over a million now live in the wild. The Nature Conservancy is helping to further protect these incredible reptiles by conserving and restoring the wetland habitats on which alligators depend.[30]
Resources
[1]https://defenders.org/wildlife/american-crocodile-and-alligator
[2]https://news.yahoo.com/much-unusual-pets-actually-cost-171426209.html
[3]https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_lf_w7000_0488.pdf
[4]https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/wildlife/alligator/facts/%23:~:text%3DTheir%2520diets%2520include%2520prey%2520species,%252C%2520small%2520mammals%252C%2520and%2520birds.
[5]https://kissagator.com/blog/can-i-take-home-a-pet-alligator/%23:~:text%3DIf%2520you%2520like%2520to%2520dress,t%2520answer%2520to%2520their%2520names.
[6]https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Reptiles/American-Alligator%23:~:text%3DAmerican%2520alligators%2520were%2520once%2520threatened,now%2520classified%2520as%2520least%2520concern.
[7]https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/american-alligator-14171/
[8]https://phys.org/news/2016-06-alligators.html
[9]https://www.zooamerica.com/animals/american-alligator/
[10]https://srelherp.uga.edu/alligators/allmis.htm
[11]http://www.shipyardhhi.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Alligator-tent-card.pdf
[12]https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/american-alligator
[13]https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/wildlife/alligator/facts/%23:~:text%3DJuvenile%2520alligators%2520eat%2520primarily%2520insects,%252C%2520small%2520mammals%252C%2520and%2520birds.
[14]https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/crocs/clickable/anat-nf.html%23:~:text%3DCrocodiles%2520will%2520swallow%2520their%2520food,are%2520not%2520their%2520natural%2520prey.
[15]https://animals.howstuffworks.com/reptiles/alligator.htm%23:~:text%3DOnce%2520a%2520week%2520is%2520a,than%2520two%2520years%2520between%2520feedings.
[16]https://www.nps.gov/bicy/learn/photosmultimedia/upload/Transcript.pdf
[17]https://www.captainjacksairboattours.com/7-are-alligators-endangered/
[18]https://www.esa.org/esablog/2012/06/04/the-american-alligator-and-its-importance-to-the-florida-everglades/
[19]https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/reptiles/alligator/
[20]https://archive-srel.uga.edu/outreach/ecoviews/ecoview190519.htm
[21]http://www.brookfield.k12.oh.us/Downloads/Reinsel%2520Go%2520Green%2520Day%25202.pdf
[22]https://phys.org/news/2016-06-alligators.html
[23]https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Reptiles/American-Alligator
[24]https://www.esa.org/esablog/2012/06/04/the-american-alligator-and-its-importance-to-the-florida-everglades/
[25]https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/animals-we-protect/american-alligator/
[26]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_alligator
[27]https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/species/detail/american-alligator
[28]https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/facts/brachychampsa-montana
[29]https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/alligator.htm
[30]https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/animals-we-protect/american-alligator/