Chinese alligator is the other type of the two known living alligators in the world. They came from the family Crocodylidae, and belong to the genus Alligatoridae. As what their name says, they are only natives in China. They are considered to be smaller in size also than the American alligators, which are their alter type in United States.
As for their appearance, they are the same with the Americans. Though they are smaller with growth rate of 2 ft long for every 2 years. Their average size is 5 ft though some cases and reports to have seen reaching 7 ft long. Sexual demorphism is present yet the males have lager than the females. Their normal weight is 100lbs or 44.4 kg which justifies their size. As talked earlier, they are kind of similar with the appearance of the American alligators. They have long, broad snouts only slightly upturned and tampered than the American alligators. They have stocky and scaly bodies. The two rows of bony ridges are found in their back which runs towards the end of the tail, as they approaches the tail, they turned into one bony ridge. As an aquatic creature, they use their tail primarily for swimming. The ends of their feet are powerful claws which can scratch any types of hard or soft skins. Their toes are not joined by webbings and bony plates in the upper eyelids are visible. Common colors of them are dark green and black. The juveniles have yellow and black bands which will vanish later as they grow. Their bellies are ossified, meaning that they turned into bones. Their teeth is purely design in crushing hard objects, even as turtles.
With their habitat, they are found in slow-running freshwater lakes, ponds, swamps, rivers, streams and marshes. Back then, they are distributed throughout the China but as of now, they are only seen in the provinces of Jianghau, Zhejiang and Anhui. There are these gator holes also which Chinese alligators are popular. The gator holes are said to hold water when the marsh runs dries out. After the dry season, when the water came back, the gator holes are being abandoned by them which will turned to be the new homes for some mammals like raccoons. They do dig some place also for their hibernation during the cold seasons. The hibernation usually last for about 6 to 7 months.
They are not nocturnal but mainly hunts during the night. They eat any small invertebrates and some vertebrates also like fish, frogs and rats. Unlike the American alligators, Chinese alligators are rarely recorded to attack any preys which is larger in their size. As for breeding, the females are said to be sexually mature when they reached the age of 4 or 5 years. If mating was done successfully, the females can lay 10-40 eggs which will then hatch after 70 days.
There are many threats which made the Chinese alligators to be in much lesser population. As of today, there are only about 300 of them living in the wild. Threat from humans are the main cause of the population declination.
Chinese Alligator are the freshwater gator. Thanks for reading my article Ari Flagle
