See Ya Later Alligator!

Alligators are common here in coastal Georgia, but there are many wonderful things that we bet you didn’t know about them! 

#1 There are only two species of alligator:

You should feel lucky you get to see one of only two species of alligators in the world! The American Alligator and the Chinese Alligator are very different in shape and size. The Chinese alligator has a more stubby nose that curves upwards at the end, are mostly black in color, lack webbed feet, and have bony plates on their stomachs. American Alligators are more brown in color, have very webbed feet and lack those bony plates on their stomachs. The size difference is also very prominent! Chinese alligators can grow up to about five feet long while American alligators can live to be more than 60 years old and attain lengths greater than 13 feet.

#2 They don’t like change (as a species):

American alligators appeared as they are now about 84 million years ago! This means that the alligator you know and love looked about the same when DINOSAURS roamed the earth!  The only older reptiles are turtles and tortoises.

#3 They can be massive! The largest alligator ever measured was 15 feet, nine inches long, and weighed in at just over one THOUSAND pounds! That’s the same as a small car in case you were wondering. 

#4 Fast Like a Cheetah: Okay they aren’t as fast as a cheetah at all, BUT they are similar to cheetahs in that they are built for speed, not endurance. Both alligators and cheetahs can only reach their max speed for a short period of time. While cheetahs' max speed is over 80 miles per hour, an alligator can run up to 35 miles per hour for a short time! What’s also amazing about alligators is that they can swim nearly as fast as they can run, using their large paddle-shaped tail to propel them through the water at over 20 miles per hour! 

#5 Temperature Dependent Sex Determination: One of the coolest things about alligators (and many reptiles actually) is the way they become male or female in their eggs! Temperature Dependent Sex Determination starts when the female alligator lays her eggs in a nest that she digs, usually in soft soil and sand and covers it in debris like grasses and sticks. This nest can be up to 2 feet tall and 6 feet across. When they lay their eggs in the nest and then cover them, the eggs are not all at the same level. Some are deeper in the nest than others. So when the sun bears down on the nest, some of the eggs are deeper and cooler while some are closer to the surface or warmed by the soil and are warmer. The warmer eggs become male alligators while the cooler eggs become females! This is actually becoming a problem as global climate change warms temperatures everywhere they lay eggs. When there aren’t enough female alligators being born, the genetic diversity of their populations is threatened. Some scientists are collecting eggs of reptiles with temperature-dependent sex determination and are hatching them in labs before returning them to the wild so that they can ensure there are a good number of both male and female animals! 

We encourage you to stop by Oatland makes sure you look for Big Boy and Little Bit, Oatland’s two beloved gators and appreciate their incredible adaptations!