American alligator
Alligator mississippiensis
— Where the name comes from
Alligator comes from the Spanish el lagarto, “the big lizard”, garbled by English colonists into alligator. Mississippiensis places it in the Mississippi basin. Unlike crocodiles it has a broad rounded snout, and with the mouth shut it hides the lower teeth: the simplest way to tell them apart.
— Facts
- Group
- Reptiles · Reptilia
- Order
- Crocodilians
- Habitat
- Swamps, marshes, freshwater rivers and lakes
- Range
- The south-eastern United States
- Size
- 3–4.5 m, 200–500 kg
- Diet
- Carnivore — fish, turtles, birds, mammals
- Lifespan
- 30–50 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It digs “gator holes” that hold water through drought, saving other species.
- 02
The sex of the young depends on the temperature of the nest, not on chromosomes.
- 03
The mother guards the nest and carries the hatchlings to the water in her mouth.
— What sets it apart
The American alligator is a conservation success story: hunted for its skin almost to extinction, by the 1960s it was among the first species protected under United States law, and within two decades it had recovered enough to be taken off the list. It is also an ecosystem engineer: by digging its pools in the marsh it creates water reserves that, in dry seasons, keep fish, turtles and birds alive across the whole area.
