Alligator

The gator is a  rare success story of an endangered animal not only saved from extinction but now thriving. State and federal protections, habitat preservation efforts, and reduced demand for alligator products have improved the species' wild population to more than one million and growing today.

One look at these menacing predators—with their armored, lizard-like bodies, muscular tails, and powerful jaws—and it is obvious they are envoys from the distant past. The species, scientists say, is more than 150 million years old, managing to avoid extinction 65 million years ago when their prehistoric contemporaries, the dinosaurs, died off.

American alligators reside nearly exclusively in the freshwater rivers, lakes, swamps, and marshes of the southeastern United States, primarily Florida and Louisiana. Heavy and ungainly out of water, these reptiles are supremely well adapted swimmers. Males average 10 to 15 feet in length and can weigh 1,000 pounds. Females grow to a maximum of about 9.8 feet . Adult alligators are important predators critical to the biodiversity of their habitat. They feed mainly on fish, turtles, snakes, and small mammals. However, they are opportunists, and a hungry gator will eat just about anything, including pets and, in rare instances, humans.
 

Fast Facts:

Did you know? The largest American alligator ever reported was supposedly 19.8 feet long, although there are doubts about the claim.
Protection status: Recovered

  Alot of the alligators here at WROH have been taken from people who kept them illegally, made them unafraid of people and now they cannot be released back into the wild for their own safety.

DO NOT TAKE WILDLIFE OUT OF IT'S ENVIORNMENT; ENJOY  IT WHERE IT BELONGS!