2. Alligator or Predators
Crocodile? Cold Blooded
Types of Alligators Vision
Meet the Alligator Alligator Farming
Diet Extinction Scare
Reproduction Is Florida too hot?
The Tail Imagine This…
Where are they Bibliography
found?
Communication
3. Alligator Crocodile
Snout Short, wide, and U-shaped Long, narrow, and V-
shaped
Teeth Lower teeth are mostly When mouth is closed, the
hidden when mouth is lower teeth show outside
closed while fitting into the upper jaw and upper
sockets in upper jaw teeth show outside the
lower jaw
Salt Glands Non-functional Salt glands on the tongue
emit extra salt
Sensory Pits Only near jaws Found all over the body
4. American Alligator
19 feet long, and up to 600 pounds
Chinese Alligator
6 feet long
has a bigger head
its snout is tapered and turns up slightly at the
end
Chinese Alligator
5. Four legged
Long tail (half of its length)
About 80 teeth
Grow back as they loose them
No longer endangered
Can live in the wild from 35 to 50 years
10 to 15 ft in length
Up to 1,000 lbs
Hear the alligator bellow
6. Carnivore
Nocturnal, feed only at night That is the sound of a
Swallow food whole hungry alligator
Offspring:
Insects, shrimps, snails, small fish, tadpoles and
frogs
Adults:
Fish, birds, turtles, reptiles, and mammals
7. April to May
Females can lay up to 50 eggs
Large nest
3 feet tall, 6 feet wide
Made of mud
Female protects the eggs but cannot sit on them
because she can crush them
Mother stays with offspring for about one year
Temperature determines sex of offspring
Above 93°F = Male
Below 86°F = Female See baby alligators hatching!
In between = Both
Listen to baby
alligators
8. An alligators tail is filled with fat and acts as a
propel when it swims and is half of the
animal’s body.
It can also make “gator holes” which are
pools of water.
They use their tails as weapons when
threatened.
9. Alligators mostly live in fresh to semi salty
water, in swamps, marshes, canals, and
lakes
The American alligator
only found in the southeastern part of the USA
Chinese alligator
lower Yangtze River basin in China
10. Hiss
long, loud, full-bodied
Used as defensive warning
Bellow
most often in spring during mating season
Carry long distance in the water
females make single bellow-growl when approached by
male
Male alligators use "water dance" to woo females and to
signal location and dominance among other males
The vibrations from their bellows is what makes the water
“dance”
11. An Alligators number one predator is man
Pythons
Uses for alligator
Meat
Hand bags
Boots
Clothing
Other Products
12. Feeding, metabolic rate, digestion, and other
activity depends on external temperature
The heat from the sun activates digestive
enzymes, so cold temperatures can kill an
alligator with a full stomach because the food
will rot instead of digest
The best body temperature is around 89°F
When it is cold outside, alligators come out of
the water to absorb the sun
When it is warm outside, they stay in the water,
or go into the water to cool off
13. An alligators pupils fully dilate at night
creating the sharpness similar to an owl
Eyes are on top of the head and they can pull
them into their skull for protection
Eyes act like a compass needle and stay
vertical to the horizon, no matter the heads
position.
14. Georgia, Texas, Louisiana
6 to 7 ft hides average $300
300,000 lbs of meat produced annually
(continually growing)
15. The alligator was listed as an endangered
species in 1967
The Endangered Species Act of 1973
outlawed alligator hunting
By 1987, the alligator population recovered
16. The alligators living in the everglades have
been smaller in weight and length
This could be from the high temperatures
increasing their metabolism or from limited
food availability
17. While swimming on a summer vacation,
imagine seeing an alligator in the water…
Click here to see the news report
18. “All about Alligators.” Enchanted Learning. 02 August 2009.
<http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/Alligator.shtml >.
“American Alligator.” 03 August 2009.
<http://www.corkscrew.audubon.org/Wildlife/Alligators.html>.
“American Alligator.” National Geographic. 02 August 2009.
<http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/america
n-alligator.html>.
“Alligator Sounds.” Sound Board. 03 August 2009.
<http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Alligator_sounds_audio.aspx>.
“Chinese Alligator.” Saint Louis Zoo. 03 August 2009.
<http://www.stlzoo.org/animals/abouttheanimals/reptiles/alligato
rsandcrocodiles/chinesealligator.htm>.