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An alligator, or colloquially gator, is a large reptile in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae in the order Crocodilia. The two extant species are the American alligator (A. mississippiensis) and the Chinese alligator (A. sinensis). Additionally, several extinct species of alligator are known from fossil remains.
Most witnessed acts of predation on marine animals have occurred in coastal waters or within sight of land, with female sea turtles and their babies caught during mating season when the turtles are closer to shore, and bull sharks being the only largish shark with a strong propensity to patrol brackish and fresh waters.
When on land, an American alligator moves either by sprawling or walking, the latter involving the reptile lifting its belly off the ground. The sprawling of American alligators and other crocodylians is not similar to that of salamanders and lizards, being similar to walking.
This is not to say American alligators hear as well underwater as they do on land, concluded researchers with A.T. Still University’s Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Missouri.
In the wild, alligator snapping turtles are also recorded eating a wide range of plant matter such as seeds, tubers, stalks, American persimmons, wild grape, water hickory, pecans, and locust. Between March and October, stomach samples of 65 turtles showed that 56% of their diet by volume was composed of acorns of water, overcup, and willow ...
They feed on fish, snakes, turtles, birds, and any other animal that is easy to catch. Alligators depend on external heat sources for warmth, so they bask along the river shore to raise their body ...
Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia.The term “crocodile” is sometimes used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans (both members of the family Alligatoridae), the gharial and false gharial (both ...
Sea turtles: there are seven extant species of sea turtles, which live mostly along the tropical and subtropical coastlines, though some do migrate long distances and have been known to travel as far north as Scandinavia. Sea turtles are largely solitary animals, though some do form large, though often loosely connected groups during nesting ...