American Alligator tidbits
GATOR!! Few critters can inspire more fear or wonder than Alligator mississipiensis. Only two countries in the world can lay claim to local populations of these reptillian neighbors, the US (the southeast in particular) and on the other side of the planet a comparatively tiny population of Alligator sinensis in southeastern China
They can be big, average length from 11.2 to 14.5 ft (3.4 to 4.4 m) in length, while adult females average 8.2 to 9.8 ft (2.5 to 3.0 m), but they rarely exceed 14 feet in length. There's no "standard" gator color either. While they generally have a green, olive, brown, gray or nearly black hue with a creamy white underside, algae-laden waters can produce greener skin, while tannic acid from decomposing leaves often produces darker skin.
Gators like it wet, but unlike their cousins the American crocodile, don't really tolerate salt water well and are more likely to be found in fresh to brackish marshes and lowlands. The marsh needs the gator almost as much as it needs the marsh. As apex predators they help control the population of hungry rodents and other animals that can easily overtax vegetation. In a dry spell, a "gator hole" or wallow can be the last spot that still has any appreciable water, good for thirsty smaller critters....... and for gators. The lives of gators and wading birds are also intimately intertwined. In the wet edges of the marsh below bird rookeries, they patrol for unfortunate chicks that may have fallen from their nests. While on guard for an easy meal, they provide the added benefit of removing hungry raccoons and other predators that would climb up into the trees and snatch the still developing chicks. Your "enemy" can sometimes be your friend!
Marsh/swamp water is rich in suspended sediment and solids, not a place you can easily "see" your prey. Gators also hunt at night when light is low and clouds can block a perfectly good full moon. To help them get food gators have developed thousands of small nodules sprinkled across their faces that act as very sensitive pressure detectors. Up close, they look like little bumps about the size of ball point pen tips, and are most noticeable around the edges of the mouth. These allow the alligator to "sense" presence, size, movement, and location of other animals in the water around it.
Don't feed the Gators!!! As cool as they are, gators are best appreciated from a distance. Offering food may get them closer. but also puts you in danger of being the main course. Just because they live in the marsh doesn't mean they eat marshmallows, or for that matter Doritos, hot dogs or anything else you might enjoy. Let them eat fish! Large gators used to human contact who eventually "attack" are rarely "relocated." They are usually destroyed as a "nuisance." Please don't help with their demise.
My Blood Runs Cold
- all activity - feeding, metabolic rate and even digestion - is dependent on external temperature (feeding behavior ceases when water temperatures drop below about 60°F)
- heat from sun activates digestive enzymess, so cold temperatures can kill a gator with a full stomach because the food will rot instead of digest
- optimum body temperature is around 89°F; when air/water temperatures cool, alligators crawl out of the water to warm in the sun where their dark skin absorbs the heat, and when they are too warm, they return to the water to cool off; on cool windy days or hot summer days, they remain in the water
