Being Watched - Alligator

Jan Mulherin

#385 of 770

Jan Mulherin

Leeds, ME

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Title

Being Watched - Alligator

Artist

Jan Mulherin

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

I took this photograph while on vacation visiting the Florida Everglades. I had to laugh when I showed this photograph to the woman I was with that day.... She says...."so that is the photograph you get when you lean over a railing to get a better angle of an alligator. He was watching and waiting for your to fall in the water". I am not sure why it never occurred to me that I could fall in....I was just worried about getting a photograph that was at a good angle (not directly above him/her). I did not realize she was upset, until I showed her the photograph. :)

Both male and female alligators have an "armored" body with a muscular, flat tail. The skin on their back is armored with embedded bony plates called osteoderms or scutes. Alligators have a long, rounded snout that has upward facing nostrils at the end; this allows breathing to occur while the rest of the body is underwater. The young have bright yellow stripes on the tail; adults have dark stripes on the tail.
It's easy to distinguish an alligator from a crocodile by the teeth. The large, fourth tooth in the lower jaw of an alligator fits into a socket in the upper jaw and is not visible when the mouth is closed. This does not happen in crocodiles. Alligators have between 74 and 80 teeth in their mouth at a time. As they wear down, they are replaced. An alligator can go through 3,000 teeth in a lifetime.
Size
Male alligators are larger than female alligators. The average adult size for a female is 8.2 feet (2.6 meters), and the average size for a male is 11.2 feet (3.4 meters). Exceptionally large males can reach a weight of nearly half a ton or 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms).
Native Habitat
The American alligator is found in the United States from North Carolina to the Rio Grande in Texas. Alligators are usually found in freshwater, slow-moving rivers. They also live in swamps, marshes and lakes. They can only tolerate salt water for brief periods because they do not have salt glands.
Food/Eating Habits
Alligators are carnivorous. They have very strong jaws that can crack a turtle shell. They eat fish, snails and other invertebrates, birds, frogs and mammals that come to the water's edge. They use their sharp teeth to seize and hold prey. They swallow small prey whole. If the prey is large, they shake it apart into smaller, manageable pieces. If it is very large, they will bite it, then spin on the long axis of their bodies to tear off easily swallowed pieces.
Reproduction and Development
Both males and females reach sexual maturity when they are about 6 feet (1.8 meters) long, a length attained at about 10 to 12 years. Breeding takes place during the night in shallow waters. Males (bulls) roar to attract females and to ward off other males. The male circles the female and mounts. Courtship starts in April, with mating usually occurring in early May.
After mating has taken place, the female builds a nest of vegetation. The nest can measure seven to 10 feet (2.1 to 3 meters) in diameter and two to three feet (0.6 to 0.9 meters) high. Then, around late June and early July, the female lays 35 to 50 eggs. Some females can lay up to 90 eggs. The eggs are then covered with vegetation and hatch after a 65-day incubation period. The sex of the juveniles is determined by the temperature of the nest. Temperatures of 31? C (87.8? F) or below produce females. A temperature of 32? C (89.6? F) produces 75 percent males and 32.5? C (90.5? F) and above are mostly females. Alligator nests are sometimes used by other reptiles for their own egg deposition and incubation.
Toward the end of August, the young alligators begin to make high-pitched noises from inside of the egg. This lets the mother know that it is time to remove the nesting material. When the baby alligator hatches it measures about 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 centimeters). Newly hatched alligators live in small groups, called "pods." Some 80 percent of young alligators fall victim to predators such as birds, raccoons, bobcats, otters, snakes, large bass and larger alligators. Females aggressively defend their young during these first few years. Crocodilians are one of the only orders of reptiles that offer maternal care to their young. The juveniles grow about a foot a year.
Lifespan
American alligators live about 50 years in the wild. After they are 4 feet long, alligators are safe from predators except humans and occasionally other alligators.
(Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute)

I am proud to have this image featured in the following Fine Art America Groups:

Wildlife ONE PER DAY: May 20, 2018
Images That Excite You: May 28, 2018

The keywords associated with this image are alligator, gator, wild, Everglades, Florida, nature, USA and Jan Mulherin.

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