text x_quick_Title2=Class: Reptilia~Order: Crocodylia~Family: Alligatoridae
text x_quick= Where In the World?~`American alligators are found in the south-eastern U.S. Their populations are greatest in southern Georgia, Florida, and southern Louisiana.~` At one time, American alligators were found from south-eastern Virginia to the Florida Keys and around the Gulf of Mexico to the Rio Grande.~` Although the American alligator was in danger of low numbers in the past, protective measures taken in the last two decades have returned this reptile's numbers to safety. It is still on the Endangered Species list because it closely resembles the American crocodile, which is at serious risk.~ ~Take a Look!~` The length of an adult American alligator is between six and twelve feet - the longest on modern record was over nineteen feet.~` New-born alligators are eight or nine inches long. They grow about a foot a year until they are five years old.~` They have about eighty teeth (forty in each jaw), plus new teeth waiting to take over if one falls out or is injured.~` The alligator's eyes and its nostrils are both bumped up on its head so the alligator can lie almost invisibly just under the water and still be able to see and breathe.~` The American alligator has a clear inner eyelid which it closes underwater - it acts like a swimmer's mask so the alligator can see well.~ ~Related Species~ There is only one other alligator species - it is the Chinese alligator. The American alligator is also related to crocodiles, caimans, and gharials.~ ~Just the Facts~` American alligators like to define their own territory, but they aren't especially unfriendly to each other. Groups of unrelated adults will gather in one place to bask in the sun and young alligators can wander~through any territory unchallenged.` ~` For very short distances - twenty or thirty feet - American alligators can run about as fast as a man. In the water, their powerful tails let them swim as fast as some motorboats.~` Each scale along an alligator's back holds a tough, durable bone plate. The hide is a waterproof coat of armour that almost nothing can harm. The belly skin, on the other hand, is smooth and vulnerable.~` Alligators prefer warm climates but can live in colder water. If an alligator's pond freezes over, the alligator butts breathing holes in the ice and pushes its snout through.~` There are lots of kinds of food the American alligator will eat, including fish, frogs, minks, muskrats, marsh rabbits, rats, snakes, turtles, and waterfowl.~` American alligators mate in the springtime after a long and surprisingly gentle courtship.~` The female returns to her own territory and builds a nest on the ground near water. She lays an average of thirty eggs (it can be as many as fifty) in the nest and covers them up.~` In the month while her eggs develop, the female lingers nearby, fending off small animals that would like to eat the eggs.~` When the eggs hatch in the summer months, the baby alligators instinctively head for water. Their mother~does not help them, and as soon as the young are in the water, they move away from their mother's territory.~` A distress call from a young alligator will capture the attention and response of any adult in the area. Some scientists think any adult will help in the hopes that whatever is attacking the baby will be edible for the grownup.~` Female American alligators may not live much past thirty years. Males in captivity have lived to be more than fifty years old.
;Habitat
text x_hab= Alligators live in the south-eastern part of the United States. (There's only one other kind of alligator, and it is found in China. It's much smaller than the American alligator, and is usually not more than five feet long.) They like warm climates, but don't really have too much trouble in cooler waters. In parts of its original range, like North Carolina, winters might be severe enough to freeze the surface ice on an alligator's pond. Like all reptiles, alligators slow down considerably in cool water, but they know enough to bust holes in the ice~from below to breathe through. When resting quietly in cooler water, an alligator can stay underwater for about an hour. American alligators need fresh water and plenty of animals to hunt. In times of drought, alligators can make their own pond. They choose a patch of swampy ground and sweep their powerful tails around and bite mud and grasses until they dig a hole. Soon the alligator finds the water below the swamp, and its own, private watering hole is ready. It can be 25 feet wide, and over time the alligator will make improvements - deepening and widening it and clearing out weeds. The alligator also makes a den. From underwater, the alligator digs a tunnel for about twenty feet. The tunnel slopes upwards, so the den built at the end is above water level and has air in it. Once alligators were found from south-eastern Virginia to the Florida Keys on the Atlantic side. On the Gulf of Mexico side, they were found from lower Florida up to Louisiana and in the Mississippi River. American alligators live in fresh water.
;Food
text x_eat= Alligators drift slowly through the water, almost entirely hidden from sight except for their eyes and nostrils. When they see a likely prey, they swim slowly in its direction, trying to look like a bit of floating debris and not like a huge, quick reptile. When the alligator is close enough, it lunges. In water, it sweeps its broad tail from side to side for speeds as fast as many motor boats. If the "dinner" is on land, the alligator carries its weight on its four sturdy legs, rushing as fast as a man can run. But only for twenty or thirty feet, though - alligators tire very quickly on land. Alligators eat almost anything they can find. Fish, frogs, turtles, muskrats, almost anything that swims. On land, an alligator might suddenly lunge and capture marsh rabbits, rats, and minks. Alligators eat snakes, too. If it's a non-poisonous snake, the alligator just gobbles it up, but somehow it knows which ones are poisonous. Those are bitten to kill them and then tossed and shaken about for a while just to make sure - then they're eaten. Alligators have sharp teeth, but they aren't used for chewing. They hold on to the meal and rip out large chunks which are swallowed whole. Alligators have powerful jaws which snap down with great strength. But the muscles that open the jaws are so weak that a person can hold a twelve-foot-long alligator's mouth shut with one hand.
;Habits and Characteristics
text x_life= Wouldn't it be fun to go back in time to the Age of Dinosaurs? You'd see enormous apatosaurs, terrifying tyrannosaurs, and well-armoured stegosaurs - all animals that no human has ever seen alive. Well, almost all. Back then, an American alligator looked just about the same as it does today. Most animals have evolved - or become extinct - since then. Not many are exactly the same as they were millions of years ago. Maybe you can't go back in time, but you can get a feel for what life was like by looking at one of the greatest reptiles ever - the alligator. And why should the alligator change its ancient design? It's perfectly suited to its watery habitat. Because alligators like to sneak up on their prey and then make a speedy dash, they do their best to hide in the water. With periscope-type eyes that are bumped up and a snorkel-like bump-up for the nostrils, an alligator can lie entirely submerged - just two small bumps sticking up - and drift or swim around without being noticed. It's hard to imagine that the two insignificant "bump" of drift wood or leaves are attached to a powerful, twelve-foot long body that can swim as fast as a fish and keep up with a running human on land for short periods. No wonder alligators are such good hunters! In the spring, alligators bellow to find a mate. At almost all other times of the year, alligators are absolutely silent, but their mating call is loud, powerful, and startling. Both males and females bellow. Once they've found each other, a pair of alligators goes t
