SREL Reprint #2918

Threatened and Endangered Species: American Alligator

I Lehr Brisbin, Jr.

Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, PO Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802

Abstract: Like other crocodilians, the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is one of the last living remnants of the ancient Archosaurian reptiles that ruled the earth during the age of the dinosaurs. It is one of the most prominent members of the southeastern herpetofauna and has been studied extensively at the Savannah River Site (SRS). Normally tropical or subtropical, alligators occupy the coastal plain of the southeastern United States, and a few scattered individuals occasionally appear north and inland from the fall line. Although alligators occur as far north as the North Carolina coast, the SRS represents the northernmost inland extension of the species’ range in South Carolina. SRS alligators, therefore, must occasionally face colder temperatures than any other naturally occurring crocodilians in the world. When their aquatic habitat freezes, SRS alligators either become semidormant in subterranean dens or move into shallow water, where they maintain small breathing holes in the ice. Alligators reach a length in excess of 3.7 m (12 ft) and a weight of 150 kg (325 lb). At 3.92 m (12 ft 9 in), an alligator from Par Pond on SRS was one of the largest ever recorded in South Carolina.

SREL Reprint #2918

Brisbin, I. L., Jr. 2005. Threatened and Endangered Species: American Alligator. pp. 285-289. In J. C. Kilgo and J. I. Blake (Eds.). Ecology and Management of a Forested Landscape: Fifty Years on the Savannah River Site. Island Press.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).