ALLIGATOR
BEHAVIOR page 6i: ON LAND; WALKING AND BASKING page 10 page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
This page was born 09/05/2024. Rickubis designed
it. (such as it is.) Last update:
Images and
contents on this page copyright ©2001-2024 Richard M. Dashnau
Alligators are amphibious (but not
AMPHIBIANS) and are in the water most of the time. Therefore
it is worthy of note when they are on land,
especially
when they are doing more than just absorbing solar energy.
Here is yet another page of terrestrial alligator antics.
08/20/2023
After the second dry summer
in a row, I started watching
an alligator moving through
mud at 9am. It was working
towards the water visible in
the center. It
would move a bit, then rest.
In situations like this, I
wonder what caused the
alligator to move in this
direction. Did it see the
water? Did it remember that
it's usually deeper
this way? Was it
"going downhill"? The
fourth image shows birds (I
think the larger one is a
juvenile Gallinule), moving
easily on the surface of the
mud. I've condensed
about 90 minutes of this
experience into this 10
minute video.
It took 45 minutes to get to
the "water", but it was just
more mud. The alligator
turned and followed the
water towards towards the
deeper part of the lake.
Progress continued
at the same laborious
pace. The alligator
occasionally tried to use
its tail for thrust, but the
mud was too thick to swim
through. I wondered if the
mud was acting like a
"non-newtonian" fluid. That
is, if the alligator moved
slowly it would cause the
mud to become more fluid,
but if it moved quickly, the
mud would become more solid.
In any case, the alligator
had a hard time. The
alligator continued with the
stoic persistence that I
always admire.
While that alligator was
struggling through the mud,
there was more activity in
the remaining puddle a bit
to the North. Two alligators
were chased out of the
puddle by
another alligator.
They moved South, and got up
into the mud.
About 15 minutes later, the
alligator moving through the
mud found more water and the
two alligators that had been
chased. It was obviously
fatigued. The other two
probably
were, also. While "my"
alligator slowly passed the
other two and moved into
more water, another
alligator that was
already in there, moved
towards "my" alligator. The
remaining pool was also
filled with birds, mostly
Common Gallinules. One
hour after I started
watching, the large gator
moved in, passing through
the birds and hyacinth,
and was met by the smaller
alligator. "My"
alligator backed away, even
though it was larger. The
water is usually at
least 4 feet
deep in this area. It was
much shallower here.
The
smaller alligator moved
parallel with the larger
one. There was a long
pause-this often happens in
such confrontations-as they
both evaluated the
situation. The
smaller one moved forward
(while the large one moved
further away), and then
started low growls, with
head raised and tail arched.
Not full bellows, but very
soft croaks or
growls. The large
gator turned back North, and
moved past the croaking
smaller gator. The smaller
gator turned and swam
alongside--as if escorting
the large one to the
edge of the lake. It stopped
and croaked a few more times
as "my" gator continued
North. I assumed that it
would continue to that bank
and cross the trail there.
The small
gator turned west and moved
through the hyacinth.
About 30 minutes later, an
alligator there started
croaking. I'm not sure if it
was the same one that had
been croaking
before, because I lost track
of which one was which as
more alligators moved
around. There were also a
few bellows, but they
stopped before I could catch
them on video.
And,
this page shows alligators at the park, on
land, near various landmarks at the park.
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