To be absolutely certain of an alligator’s gender, it’s necessary to either feel or visually identify the copulatory organs that are hidden inside the alligator’s body in the cloaca, or vent, on the animal’s belly. It is a slit located between the rear legs.Jul 17, 2015[1]
What Does An American Alligator And Community Interactions
Species Profile: American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)srelherp.uga.edu › alligators › allmis[2]
How Do Alligators Interact With Each Other?
To communicate in water, an alligator communicates by slapping the water. During mating season, the male alligator does a head slap on the water to send signals out to the female alligator. Because sound travels faster in water, the head slap technique can allow long-distance communication.[3]
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.[4]
Are American Alligators Social Or Solitary?
Behavior. Large male alligators are solitary territorial animals. Smaller alligators can often be found in large numbers close to each other. The largest of the species (both males and females) defend prime territory; smaller alligators have a higher tolerance for other alligators within a similar size class.[5]
Do American Alligators Live In Groups?
Alligators are social creatures and often gather in groups called congregations. These groups are typically seen basking in the sun or taking a swim. Alligators regulate their temperature externally. Like most reptiles, they are ectothermic or cold-blooded.[6]
How Did An American Alligator Change Over Time
A reptilian anachronism: American alligator older than we thoughtnews.ufl.edu › articles › 2016/09 › a-reptilian-anachronism-american-alliga…[7]
How Has The Alligator Evolved?
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.[8]
How Does American Alligator Adapt To Its Environment?
Physical Adaptations:
Powerful tail used for swimming. Eyes and nostrils on the top of their head so they can remain submerged while breathing and keeping an eye out. A “third eyelid” called the nictitating membrane sweeps sideways across the eye to protect the eye during feeding and diving.[9]
How Did The American Alligator Recover?
Alligators live in the wetlands of the southern United States. The reptiles were hunted close to extinction. After they were listed under the Endangered Species Act, hunting was prohibited and their habitat was protected. The species has made a dramatic recovery and was removed from the endangered species list in 1987.[10]
When Did Alligators Evolve Last?
Today’s alligators, crocodiles and gharials—grouped together as crocodylians—shared a common ancestor back in the Cretaceous, around 95 million years ago.Oct 7, 2021[11]
What Is The Symbiotic Relationship Between An American Alligator And A Burmese Python
Burmese Python by Gina — Symbiotic Relationshipshelloschoolprojects.tumblr.com › post › symbiotic-relationships[12]
What Symbiotic Relationships Do Alligators Have?
An alligator and a birds symbiotic relationship is mutualism. The alligator gets its teeth cleaned by the bird. The bird gets its food from the alligators teeth. An example of commensalism is when a bird flies in an alligators mouth and gets food from the alligators mouth.[13]
How Do Burmese Pythons Affect Alligators?
Burmese pythons are eating machines. An adult snake can grow to nearly 20 ft., and it can eat everything from raccoons to bobcats to deer to alligators, killing its prey by constriction and then swallowing them whole.[14]
Can Burmese Pythons Eat Alligators?
Burmese pythons are generalist predators and eat a wide variety of animals in Florida. In fact, dramatic declines in some native wildlife species have been linked to the invasive python. On occasion, the snakes have even been recorded eating alligators.Aug 3, 2022[15]
Did A Burmese Python Explodes After Eating Alligator?
It appears that the 13-foot long Burmese python attempted to swallow the six-foot alligator before its stomach ruptured, resulting in the deaths of both animals. American alligators are native to the Everglades, while the Burmese python is not.[16]
How Big Is A Big American Alligator
American alligatorReptiles[17]
What Is The Biggest American Alligator On Record?
The largest reported individual size was a male killed in 1890 on Marsh Island, Louisiana, and reportedly measured at 5.84 m (19 ft 2 in) in length, but no voucher specimen was available, since the American alligator was left on a muddy bank after having been measured due to having been too massive to relocate.[18]
How Big Is A Full Grown American Alligator?
Male alligators grow faster and larger than females. Females rarely exceed 9 feet in length and large females can weigh more than 200 pounds. Males rarely exceed 13 feet in length and large males can weigh well over 500 pounds.[19]
What Is The Largest Size Of An Alligator?
The largest alligator ever recorded anywhere was found in the late 1900’s on Marsh Island in Louisiana. This big guy measured an astounding 19 feet 2 inches, and had an estimated 2,200 pounds of body mass! The average American alligator weighs 200 pounds and measures 7 feet 6 inches long.[20]
Is There A 20 Foot Alligator?
A massive 20ft alligator was seen ‘eating’ a smaller love rival in front of shocked bystanders in Florida. The beast was spotted lifting its flailing prey into the air and walking off with it on a lawn in Lakeland, near Tampa, on March 8.[21]
How Is Chinese Alligator Different Than American Alligator
Compared to its cousin the American alligator, the Chinese version is relatively small, with an average total length of about five feet in males and 4½ feet in females. The Chinese alligator has a more robust head than its American counterpart, and its snout is tapered and turns up slightly at the end.[22]
Are American Alligators Bigger Than Chinese Alligators?
Chinese alligators are much smaller than American alligators. An average female Chinese alligator is about 4 ½ feet long, while the male is about 5 feet long. American alligators are much longer; females average 8 feet long and the males are usually a little over 11 feet long.[23]
What Do Chinese Alligators Look Like?
Dark gray or black in color with a fully armored body, the Chinese alligator grows to 1.5–2.1 metres (5–7 ft) in length and weighs 36–45 kilograms (80–100 lb) as an adult. It brumates in burrows in winter and is nocturnal in summer.[24]
Is The Chinese Alligator A Crocodile?
The Chinese alligator is one the world’s most endangered crocodilians. Recent progress by the Chinese government means the future outlook is a little brighter. Habitat destruction has been the major cause of decline, with most wetland areas being affected due to human population pressures.[25]
What Kinds Of Species Is American Alligator
The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States.[26]
What Type Of Species Is An American Alligator?
An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (A. mississippiensis) and the Chinese alligator (A. sinensis).[27]
How Many Species Of American Alligators Are There?
The name alligator is an anglicized form of the Spanish el lagarto (‘the lizard’), the name by which early Spanish explorers and settlers in Florida called the alligator. There are two living alligator species: the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) and the Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis).[28]
Is The American Alligator A Keystone Species?
Alligators are an important part of the Everglades ecosystem and are considered a keystone species of the park.[29]
What Are The Two Species Of Alligator?
Alligators are crocodilians in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. There are two alligator species: the American and the Chinese (Alligator sinensis).[30]
Resources
[1]https://crewtrust.org/wildlife-q-a-how-can-you-tell-if-an-alligator-is-male-or-female/
[2]https://srelherp.uga.edu/alligators/allmis.htm
[3]https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Alligator_mississippiensis/
[4]https://srelherp.uga.edu/alligators/allmis.htm
[5]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator
[6]https://www.livescience.com/27306-alligator-facts.html
[7]https://news.ufl.edu/articles/2016/09/a-reptilian-anachronism-american-alligator-older-than-we-thought.html
[8]https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/facts/brachychampsa-montana
[9]http://cincinnatizoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/American-Alligator.pdf
[10]https://www.endangered.org/animals/american-alligator/
[11]https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/modern-crocodiles-are-evolving-rapid-rate-180978432/
[12]https://helloschoolprojects.tumblr.com/post/77940560171/symbiotic-relationships
[13]https://sites.google.com/a/westcta.ccsd.net/everglades-national-park-1/symbiotic-relationships%3Fscrlybrkr%3Dbf2ca267
[14]https://science.time.com/2012/01/31/invaders-how-burmese-pythons-are-devouring-the-everglades/
[15]https://www.newsweek.com/alligators-burmese-pythons-who-would-win-fight-1730440
[16]https://news.mongabay.com/2005/10/python-explodes-after-swallowing-6-foot-alligator-in-florida-everglades/
[17]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_alligator
[18]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_alligator
[19]https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/species/detail/american-alligator
[20]https://www.captainjacksairboattours.com/3-how-big-are-alligators/
[21]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10618459/Massive-20ft-alligator-caught-camera-eating-smaller-love-rival-Florida-lawn-VIDEO.html
[22]https://www.stlzoo.org/animals/abouttheanimals/reptiles/alligatorsandcrocodiles/chinesealligator
[23]https://study.com/academy/lesson/differences-between-chinese-american-alligators-lesson-for-kids.html
[24]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_alligator
[25]https://www.crocodilesoftheworld.co.uk/animals/chinese-alligator/
[26]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_alligator
[27]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator%23:~:text%3DAn%2520alligator%2520is%2520a%2520large,sinensis).
[28]https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/a/Alligator.htm%23:~:text%3DThe%2520name%2520alligator%2520is%2520an,Chinese%2520Alligator%2520(Alligator%2520sinensis).
[29]https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/alligator.htm%23:~:text%3DAlligators%2520are%2520an%2520important%2520part,keystone%2520species%2520of%2520the%2520park.
[30]https://www.keywestaquarium.com/ultimate-guide-alligators%23:~:text%3DAlligators%2520are%2520crocodilians%2520in%2520the,the%2520Chinese%2520(Alligator%2520sinensis).