Do alligators get itchy?
So, I'm sitting here with my friend who happens to be wearing a cast on her leg. She has described her leg as feeling like an alligator inside the cast and that it's very itchy. So since people describe their dry itchy skin as alligator like.. do alligators get itchy? Thanks for your assistance Peace & Blessings
Can alligators get rabies?
Rabies tends to be a mammalian disease. To my knowledge no reptiles are affected by the pathogen and neither can they pass it on. It a bit like how we don't contract HIV from mosquitoes. Logically it seems as if we should, because they spread all sorts of other terrible diseases, but actually their body's own digestive system destroys HIV.
How can you tell how old and alligator is?
Growth is a good indication. How can I tell how old humans are?
Should I get a pet alligator?
In one word... NO! If you need to ask, you don't have the experience needed to own one. These are not good pets for the average person. As to the zoo, it's a myth that zoos need more animals. Every year pets are killed because there is no place for them. Lions, tigers, large snakes, gators are all easy to breed, look cute when young and almost all become unwanted animals when they become adults. My suggestion to you, will be the one that was given to me many years ago... be a volunteer at the local zoo. You will get the education you need, and with time may get to interact with the animals.
How fast alligators can run?
I hate to disagree with haysoos, cause he is a fansastic answerer, but the top speed of a gator being 35 mph is a myth. I had heard that it was a myth by a naturalist friend of mine before, but actually watched a nature show where they demonstrated that big gators cant sprint quickly at all-top is about 8-10 mph. They can burst to that speed almost instantly though-which is usually more than enough to catch a person standing close by. here is a quote from a website that discusses this based on other tests done: There are a lot of CRAZY gator stories, the most common is that they run 25,40 or even 50 miles an hour. think about the way the animal is built. 12 feet and 600 lbs of body on 12" long legs. Imagine driving 35 miles an hour.. breaking the speed limit in a school zone...and an Alligator PASSES you. Did you giggle? You should have, 'cause it's just as crazy as it sounds. The MAXIMUM top speed of an alligator, you ready for this? After extensive research.... it was determined to be between 10 and 11 miles per hour, for up to 8 yards. Big let down huh? kinda shoots down the old "Alligators can outrun race horses for 50 yards" stories. what a gator CAN do, is go from laying there like a log... to that 10 MPH, in 1 step. No :building up speed" time involved. That's why they get tired so fast (remember less than 10 yards),and why they LOOK like they're going so fast! " and here is the website http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/2221...
Where do alligators go when they die?
When my brother was a DEA agent he supplemented his income by hunting alligators. Alligators are not a sporting animal and are easy to kill. You hunt them at night. One person holds a strong flashlight and the second person shoots the alligator right between the shining eyes. Then my brother would skin the alligator and had to turn the skins over to the State of Florida and he got to butcher the meat and sell it to restaurants that prepared exotic meals for tourists near Disney World, south of Orlando. He told me he had killed over 2,000 alligators.So now you know where those alligators went, at least the ones my brother killed.Having been born and raised in Florida I accept alligators as part of the ecosystem here and have a neutral attitude towards them. They don’t tend to be aggressive with humans like a crocodile is. They are generally afraid of adult humans but as opportunistic eaters will eat a small child or dog if available. I’ve gone swimming with an alligator in Lake Marion in Altamonte Springs, FL. It was about six feet long. It kept its distance and never got closer to me than about 20 feet. That was when I was younger in 1963.
Why do alligators live so long?
Well… they don’t, really. There’s nothing all that remarkable about the lifespans of alligators. They live to be between 30 and 50 years on average, but can live to be up to 80 years old. So, they don’t live quite as long as we do.Reptiles in general have longer lifespans than mammals. A tiny anole lizard may live twice as long as the much larger and more robust mouse, for example. Reptiles are just better than mammals, really. Longer-lived, more resistant to various health issues, and possessing better senses. Birds (yes, birds are also reptiles, phylogenetically — we know that now) have much better vision than mammals do, and can see many more colors. Some lizards can as well.It’s not the reptilian slow metabolism that grants them their superiority. Birds, as I mentioned, also have these characteristics, and they have a metabolism as high or higher than mammals. They still live longer; there are a number of bird species that live as long or longer than humans, and humans are among the longest-lived mammals on Earth. (Bowhead whales take the grand prize, though, living as long as 200 years). There aren’t really any vertebrate animals that live too long past 200, however, whether reptile or mammal. There are just more reptile species that do so than there are mammals.But the alligator isn’t one of them.
Do alligators grow to their surroundings?
i have been raising alligators for over 35 years,they will grow 6 inches per year from ave,12 inch hatchling size until they hit about 6 feet then the growth slows to a few inches a year.they will outgrow whatever you put them in.i have never had one less than 10 foot.if you are considering getting one you can e-mail and i'll help you with any questions you may have,for your sake and the gators.the people who answer the ?'s here on gator's have no idea what the hell they are talking about.
How long can an alligator stay under water?
The exact duration is unknown, but lengths of time up to two hours have been recorded for crocodilians in general. Alligators reduce their metabolic activity dramatically in order to achieve this. In most cases, alarmed alligators will not stay submerged for longer than 30 to 45 minutes, unless pressed.