Chinese Alligator: The Freshwater Gator

Chinese alligator is the other type of the two known living alligators in the world

. They came from the family Crocodylidae, and belong to the genus Alligatoridae. As what their name says, they are only natives in China. They are considered to be smaller in size also than the American alligators, which are their alter type in United States.

As for their appearance, they are the same with the Americans. Though they are smaller with growth rate of 2 ft long for every 2 years. Their average size is 5 ft though some cases and reports to have seen reaching 7 ft long. Sexual demorphism is present yet the males have lager than the females. Their normal weight is 100lbs or 44.4 kg which justifies their size. As talked earlier, they are kind of similar with the appearance of the American alligators. They have long, broad snouts only slightly upturned and tampered than the American alligators. They have stocky and scaly bodies. The two rows of bony ridges are found in their back which runs towards the end of the tail, as they approaches the tail, they turned into one bony ridge. As an aquatic creature, they use their tail primarily for swimming. The ends of their feet are powerful claws which can scratch any types of hard or soft skins. Their toes are not joined by webbings and bony plates in the upper eyelids are visible. Common colors of them are dark green and black. The juveniles have yellow and black bands which will vanish later as they grow. Their bellies are ossified, meaning that they turned into bones. Their teeth is purely design in crushing hard objects, even as turtles.

Chinese alligators prefer to live in slow-running freshwater of lakes, ponds, swamps, rivers, streams and marshes. They are said to be distributed all throughout the China but as of now, they are now only seen in the provinces of Jiangau, Zhejiang and Anhui. They may also be very beneficial to their environment since they dig holes known to be Gator holes. These gator holes were filled up with water even if the marsh dries up, the water in the holes will still remain and can support them until the water in marsh will back again. If they leave the holes, the raccoons and other mammals will then live in the holes. Alligators are also known for digging some dens for their hibernation. It usually took 6-7 months per year for their hibernation.

Chinese alligators are fond of catching their preys at night. They eat any invertebrates and vertebrates. Unlike American alligators, they don't usually attack any preys which are larger than their size. With regards to their breeding, the females are said to be ready for mating when she reaches the age of 4 or 5 years old. After a successful mating, the female will the lay about 10-40 eggs and have to wait for 70 days before the eggs will hatch.

There are many threats which made the Chinese alligators to be in much lesser population. As of today, there are only about 300 of them living in the wild. Threat from humans are the main cause of the population declination.

by: Ari Flagle

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