National Geographic: Realm of the Alligator Page #2

Year:
1987
49 Views


if they...

No, they don't eat for several months

during the winter.

I should think the average member

of the public that comes to Okefenokee

and sees an alligator thinks

they have really arrived in prehistory

Back in the Age of the Reptiles.

The study of alligator social behavior

has occupied Kent Vliet

for several years.

At his laboratory in Gainesville,

Florida,

he works with a wealth

of accumulated data.

We've learned that alligator

behavior is very, very complex.

It's much more complex and

much more sophisticated

than the behavior of other reptiles

that have been studied.

And so our dealings with alligator

behavior have been to try to

document the types of behaviors

they show and analyze these,

Not only in simple terms of

alligator behavior,

but as they might represent

the primitive beginnings

from which the more complex behaviors

of birds and mammals have evolved.

Most of Kent's observations

have been made at

the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.

Several hundred alligators are

on display here

for the enlightenment of tourists.

The farm affords easy access to

an otherwise elusive animal.

before that just to see

if the place would work out.

Are there many differences

between these gator-farm alligators

and the ones you get in the wild?

Well, captive animals look a

lot different from wild animals.

The most noticeable difference...

Is that the head of a captive animal

is much broader.

You don't have this beautifully

elongated snout.

That's because captive animals spend

so much time on land basking,

and at least in old animals like these

the head weighs so much

that is just tends to flatten itself out

over the years.

It spreads out and becomes much broader

Is that what squeezes the teeth out too

Yeah...

because they're all showing

very obviously here?

They're very toothy animals

Also all the scales on their back

are worn down...

much more so than

a wild animal would be.

And that's just because these animals

live in very high densities on farms,

and they crawl over each other.

they just kind of buff each other

down all the time.

Since 1981 Kent Vliet has made

a detailed study

of alligator behavior

in the mating season

from April into June.

But Kent was not happy

with his original vantage point.

It was secure, but didn't provide

an accurate water-level view.

He decided to enter the lake

a procedure not without certain risks.

It is possible, when you're in the lake

that a big male will decide

he doesn't want you there

and actually come up and try

to get you out of his territory.

We've had very few problems

when I was swimming in the lake,

but there's always the potential for

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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