American Alligator in Paynes Prarie, Florida
The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is one of North America's most ancient and successful predators — and Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, just south of Gainesville, Florida, is one of the finest places on the continent to encounter one in the wild. . . Paynes Prairie This 21,000-acre basin prairie is a designated National Natural Landmark and one of Florida's most ecologically significant wild places. A shallow, sprawling wetland mosaic of wet prairie, marsh, hammock, and open water, it sits in a natural sinkhole basin whose water levels have risen and fallen dramatically over centuries. It supports an exceptional diversity of wildlife — bison, wild horses, sandhill cranes, and hundreds of bird species — but the alligator reigns here as the apex predator. . . Ancient Lineage American alligators are living relics of the Mesozoic, with a lineage stretching back more than 37 million years in essentially their current form. They survived whatever ended the dinosaurs and have changed remarkably little since. Encountering one on the boardwalks or trail edges of Paynes Prairie offers a genuine brush with deep evolutionary time. The Animal Itself Adult males at Paynes Prairie regularly exceed 10 feet and can approach 13 feet in length, weighing upwards of 500 pounds. Females are considerably smaller, typically reaching 8 to 9 feet. Their armor-like skin, called osteoderms, contains small bony plates beneath the scales that act as a kind of solar panel, absorbing heat directly into the bloodstream — an elegant solution for an ectotherm managing Florida's variable temperatures. . . Behavior and Hunting Alligators are ambush predators of remarkable patience, capable of remaining motionless for hours at the water's edge. They are opportunistic and will take fish, turtles, wading birds, snakes, and mammals. At Paynes Prairie, they are frequently observed along the La Chua Trail corridor, basking on the levee banks or gliding silently through the shallow marsh. Their bite force is among the strongest of any living animal — measured at over 2,900 pounds per square inch — but their mouths open with surprisingly little force, which is why hatchlings can be held shut with a single hand. . . Bellowing and Breeding Spring at Paynes Prairie brings one of nature's more primal spectacles. Males bellow deeply — a resonant, infrasonic rumble that vibrates the water surface into a dancing mist called the "water dance" — to establish territory and attract females. Females build large mound nests of vegetation, and the heat of decomposition incubates the eggs. Nest temperature during a critical period actually determines the sex of the hatchlings — a phenomenon called temperature-dependent sex determination. . . Conservation Comeback Once hunted nearly to extinction for their hides and listed as endangered in 1967, American alligators rebounded so successfully under federal protection that they were removed from the endangered list by 1987 — one of the Endangered Species Act's earliest and most celebrated conservation successes. Florida today is home to an estimated 1.3 million alligators. Paynes Prairie's healthy, visible population is a direct testament to what protected habitat and legal safeguards can accomplish.
Uploaded Apr 25, 2013 by Jason Buchheim username:odyssey copyright 2013
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