by Kari Nichols

Created on: July 05, 2009

Alligators have a reputation for attacking anything that moves within their reach. They are aggressive and able to crush small prey in their jaws with a tremendous amount of downforce, or grasp and tear their victims in their teeth. But as mothers, they show the most patient care of their young. This is rare in the reptile world.

From the time the alligator makes her grass and mud nest and lays her eggs, she is extremely aggressive about protecting it. She usually has a burrow nearby, and remains in the area and guards her nest constantly for the two month incubation time. The nest is built on land or a mound in shallow water, up above water level. If the eggs were to be in water, they would die within 12 hours. The eggs are laid in the center cradle before she covers them with more grass and mud to incubate in the summer sun.

When the eggs begin to hatch, the baby alligators start to make vocal sounds that the mother hears, and she scrapes off the cover of the nest to get to the babies. She then picks up eight or ten of them at a time into her mouth and takes them down to the water, where she opens her mouth and gently shakes her head for them to swim out. There may be as many as 45 or so baby hatchlings, and she makes several trips back to the nest to recover each hatching baby gator and carry them to the water, repeating her task until the nest is empty.

Baby alligators will stay near their mother for their first year. During this time, they are very vulnerable to attack from raccoons, large fish and other alligators. Large adult male alligators are known to eat the young. If the mother senses danger to the young, she makes a grunting sound to call the babies and they rush to her, many climbing into her mouth, for protection. If the babies should venture too far and become startled or attacked, they will cry out to the mother, who will respond instantly and swiftly take care of the problem.

In that first year, often the surviving young will winter with their mother in her den, hibernating during the coldest times. These dens are holes in the ground, often found in the banks of waterways or a little up on the shore, that the mother has dug out with her claws to create a comfortable place to rest. At times some of the babies will remain with her for two or three years, burrowing at the same location with her, before going leaving to join up with other young adults.

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