Alligators are awesome reptiles and real super-survivors!

Here are more fun facts about alligators: 

  Alligators help wetlands like the Everglades. How?

• During dry periods, alligators dig holes in the ground. 
• These gator holes then fill in with water.
• Gator holes are a great source of water and food for lots of animals, including turtles, fish, frogs, and wading birds. 
    

  How else do alligators help wetlands during dry spells?

• They make wide paths through grasses as they walk.
• These become creek beds.
• The creek beds let much-needed water flow into the dry land.
  

  Keen senses.

• Alligators have excellent hearing and eyesight.
• They see especially well at night.
• And they're great at finding meals in dark, murky water.
• Their snouts have special organs that help them smell well, too.
    

  Cool tricks.

• When diving underwater, an alligator’s nostrils and ears close up.
• It can hold its breath below the surface for more than an hour.
    

  Alligator nest.

• A gator mom builds a mound-shaped nest of leaves and branches and scrapes a hole out in the middle.
• She lays 20 to 70 eggs in the hole. Then she covers it over again.
• As the leaves and branches rot, they give off enough heat to keep the eggs warm. 
    

  Everyone's mom?

• Some kinds of turtles, snakes, and lizards often lay their eggs in alligator nests.
• So their eggs are guarded by a gator mom—often, it seems, without the other animals knowing it.
    

  Caring mamma

• Mom watches out for her young for a few months or so, until they are old enough to be on their own. 
    

  Birthing baby gators

• When baby alligators are ready to hatch out of their eggs, they call out with grunting noises.
• Hearing these sounds, a gator mom will tear open the nest.
• She may lift each egg into her mouth. Then she may press the egg against the roof of her mouth.
• That cracks the shell and releases the young.
• Once all of the babies are hatched, a mom often carries them to the water.
    

   Hanging out with Mom

• Gator babies often rest on a mom’s head or back.
    

  Eating, gator-style

• Alligators don’t chew their food.
• They tear off chunks from large prey, then swallow these whole.
• With small prey, they gulp it down all at once!
    

  Ancient gator

• Scientists digging in China have recently discovered the fossil of an ancestor of alligators and crocodiles. It’s named Junggarsuchus.
• This ancient beast lived on dry land and not in the water.
• It walked on tall legs—not short squat ones.
• But Junggarsuchus had one thing in common with modern alligators: A super-strong jaw.