Alligators benefit by eating chicks that fall from the bird nests. They eat raccoons and opossums, which like to eat bird eggs. That’s because gators can unintentionally protect nests. Research shows long-legged wading birds such as herons and egrets sometimes build nests above where alligators are present. Are they seeking some of their favorite foods – crabs and young sharks? Did storms or floods push them toward the sea? More research is needed to find out why.Īs apex predators, alligators help maintain the balance of smaller predators such as blue crabs, which eat snails and mussels. Some gators will go into the ocean for short periods.
They live in swamps, lakes and slow-moving freshwater rivers and some brackish waters (part fresh, part salt). That means gators can’t travel north by way of the ocean. Nor do they have glands to filter toxic levels of salt as crocodiles do. With large bodies and short legs, gators cannot migrate over land. While they quit eating, they continue to drink water to avoid dehydration. They surface periodically or keep their nostrils above ice to breathe. In cold weather, they go into short periods of dormancy called “brumation.” Their heart rate slows down, and they become very sluggish, burrowing into waterside dens or tunnels, venturing out periodically to bask in the sun. To cool down, gators hold their mouths open like a dog panting.Īlligators don’t hibernate. As alligators bask in the sun, blood flowing through the scutes warms the gator’s body. The armor-looking scutes along a gator’s back act like solar panels. Reptiles are coldblooded (ectothermic) and rely on external sources of heat to regulate their body temperature. Alligators have survived millions of years but need temps above 40 degrees to be active and can’t digest food if the temperature is below 70. “My instinct is they were released illegal pets,” Rowe said. North Carolina is the northernmost extent of alligator range.”Ĭhris Rowe of the University of Maryland’s environmental services thinks humans are to blame for the sightings. “However, the Chesapeake Bay is too far north to support alligator populations. Does that mean the prehistoric-looking reptiles are moving into the Mid-Atlantic region?Īdult alligators can spend time in brackish waters where food resources such as blue crabs are plentiful, said alligator biologist Alicia Davis of North Carolina’s Wildlife Resources Commission. Since 2015, alligators have occasionally been seen in Maryland and Virginia communities around the Chesapeake Bay.
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