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August 2008

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Animals Happenings:

Calendar subject to change

American Alligator

Latin Name:	Alligator mississippiensis.
Category:	Reptiles
Fun Facts:	The American alligator is one of the two largest reptiles in North America. It shares this known fact with the American Crocodile. Female alligators are usually just less than 10 feet long and male alligators are usually between 13 and 14.5 feet long. Some female alligators are recorded as having laid up to 88 eggs at one time! The American alligator can have anywhere between 74 to 80 teeth. The American alligator is a carnivore and will eat just about anything that lives in, or comes close to, the water, including fish, turtles and small mammals. The alligator does not go out and hunt for its prey. Instead, the alligator waits patiently until something comes close enough for it to lunge and snap up in its large jaws. An alligator can live between 35 and 50 years in the wild.
Information:	Is your own room warmer or cooler than other rooms in your house? What if the temperature of your room determined whether you were a boy or a girl? With the American alligator, something like that actually happens. When a female alligator is ready to lay eggs, she builds a large nest of mud and vegetation which is usually about 5 to 7 feet across and 1 to 3 feet high. She usually lays anywhere from 35 to 50 eggs, though it can be more, and covers the eggs with more mud and vegetation. Inside the nest, the temperatures vary. Eggs that are in the warmer parts of the nest tend to become males, and eggs in the cooler part of the nest become females. If a female can lay 50 or more eggs a year, why aren’t there alligators everywhere? It’s because even though their mothers are very protective, about 80 percent of young alligators end up as prey for other animals including birds, raccoons, otters, snakes and large fish. However, a young alligator grows more than a foot a year. By the time it is 3 to 4 feet long, it is big enough that most predators will leave it alone. An adult alligator’s only predator is man. Alligators like to live in still or slow moving water. An alligator can float beneath the surface of the water with just its nostrils above the surface. In rougher water an alligator has to hold its snout at a steeper angle to breath, which makes swimming harder. Since it is cold-blooded, an alligator will bask in the sun to warm up or take a swim to cool down. In the winter months, it may build a burrow and become dormant, but it can also survive in the water. It will float with its body below the water and its nostrils above the water. As long as it can breathe, it will stay in one place and allow its upper body to become trapped in the ice. Because it isn’t using much energy just lying there, the alligator can go without eating during the entire cold season. Though the American alligator is common throughout its range, it is listed as threatened by the federal government because it looks similar to the American crocodile, which is endangered.
Habitat:	Located in the Shores Region, in the Reptile Building, one of the oldest buildings at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. This building was opened in 1968 and renovated to be more interactive in 1998. Home of the Reptile Keeper Lab where you can learn about reptiles in an up-close encounter. Check for scheduled times on the zoo map when you arrive.