You've read about alligator-handling as a career; now can you handle a lesson with these half-ton reptiles? Liz Beatty is a blogger, a former member of the C-Note Editorial Board and an alligator enthusiast. She's also the author of this bitingly sharp quiz...
1. If an alligator chases you, you should run in a zigzag to elude it.
FALSE—The only reason an alligator would chase you is if you did something to really agitate it—like mess with a nest, get near babies, or poke it. They're pretty lazy and would rather lie around near the water doing absolutely nothing! If one chases you it's probably just trying to scare you away. It won't chase you far, so all you need to do is get away as fast as you can in a straight line.
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2. Alligators are on the endangered species list.
FALSE—Efforts to rebuild the alligator population have been successful and they are no longer endangered. The only known predator the full-grown gator has is the human. The gator is otherwise at the top of the food chain. Alligators have strong immune systems and do not suffer from disease. Their vulnerability comes from plastic bags, cans of food, and other pollution left by careless humans. Swallowing these things causes blockages that can kill even a large gator.
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3. Alligators can grow to more than 20 feet long, and most adult male gators grow to at least 14 feet.
FALSE—Many scared witnesses will report that the gator was "two feet longer than my 16-foot boat" or similar measurements, but these reports have never been verified. Usually, after a report like this, a 10- or 12-foot gator is found in the area. The largest gator ever found in Florida was 17 feet 5 inches, and the largest alligator in the world, found in Louisiana, measured 19 feet 2 inches.
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4. Alligators eat less than 50 pounds of food a year.
TRUE—Only a full-grown male gator would eat close to 50 pounds in a year. Gators eat nothing from fall to spring because they're not very active and since they're cold blooded they don't need energy to heat their bodies. In the summer, gators eat snakes, fish, turtles, frogs, birds, muskrats, deer, cows, and anything else that makes itself easily available. If they find something large, they drag it under water (the death roll) and stick it somewhere to decay. They tear off pieces to eat with their teeth.
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5. The female gator builds a nest for her eggs and refuses to leave it until they hatch.
FALSE—The female gator builds a huge nest near the water made of mud, sticks, and grass. She guards and watches over it, sometimes from a distance. When the babies are ready to hatch, they cry—called piping—and momma digs them out. She cracks the eggs with her teeth and carries the babies to the water in her mouth. Even though she'll guard her babies for the first year, other gators and animals will kill most of them before they are large enough to defend themselves.
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6. Alligators hibernate in the winter.
FALSE—Warm-blooded animals hibernate. Cold-blooded reptiles like alligators rest in a state called "brumation." Their heart rate slows to three beats per minute and they rest. They do not eat or have any physical activity. Gators will build burrows in the marsh, below the frost line of the water, where the temperature won't fall too low for them to survive.
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7. Alligators mate for life.
TRUE—The male alligator courts the female with a "water dance" by "fizzing" air bubbles around his body. When a female accepts his advances, she usually will only mate with that one male. However, the biggest male gator is quite the "player" and is the mate chosen by all of the females in the area.
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8. Alligators can be trained just like dogs or other animals.
TRUE—American alligators are intelligent. They can be taught to recognize their names, to stay in or come out of the water, or to respond to a foot stomp. They are trained much like dogs, with verbal commands and treats to reward desired behavior. They have even been trained to walk into a container. This is especially important when evacuation is necessary due to a hurricane!
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#9: Alligators can hold their breath for upwards of 45 minutes at a time.
TRUE—Usually if the gator goes under water to hide, it goes straight down and stays under. When it comes up, it will often be in the same location.
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#10: Like humans, alligators eat three meals a day, every day.
FALSE—An alligator actually could go two years or longer without eating and still survive. The tail has so much fat built up, and alligators do so little, that they don't burn up a lot of fat or energy.
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