Category Nature Science & Wildlife

If you’ve ever visited the Sunshine State, you can’t miss them. No, we’re not talking about people in flipflops, we’re talking about alligators! They’re big, they’re exciting to watch, and they’re everywhere you look in the Everglades. In fact, as Floridians, we’re used to sharing our gorgeous state with them, and we respect the contribution they’ve made to our home. But what about crocodiles? There are distinct differences between alligators and crocodiles. If you’ve found yourself on an Everglades airboat tour and in a situation where you can’t tell if the animal in front of you is an alligator or a crocodile, here are a few tips to help you differentiate the two.

The Difference Between Alligators and Crocodiles

To most people, alligators and crocodiles look similar. While they do share many of the same features, they couldn’t be any more different to a trained professional. Typically, crocodiles are more aggressive than alligators, which makes crocodiles more dangerous than alligators. Alligators are opportunistic feeders, meaning that they’re not likely to chase you down unless they’re provoked. However, that certainly doesn’t mean that you should swim with them. Caution and common sense should be exercised at all times near and around both alligators and crocodiles on an Everglades excursion.

Physical Differences

The snout shape and jawline are probably the easiest ways to distinguish alligators vs. crocodiles on Miami airboat tours.

Snout Shape: Alligators have a wide, rounded, u-shaped snout, while crocodiles have long, pointed, v-shaped snouts. Believe it or not, the difference in shape means that alligators can exert more strength from their mouths, which is useful in cracking open hard-shelled vertebrates, like turtles.

Jawline: Alligators have a wide upper jaw, which allows for the teeth to remain hidden in the mouth. Crocodiles are different from alligators in this sense, where both the upper and lower jaws of a crocodile are the same size, exposing their teeth as they interlock, creating the look of a toothy grin. From a distance, it’s not too difficult to tell the difference between an alligator and a crocodile when looking at the shape of the snout and visibility of the teeth.

Size and Weight: Both alligators and crocodiles are massive reptiles. Gators can grow to be anywhere between 10 and 15 feet long as adults, weighing in at an average of 500 pounds. As far as crocs, they can reach an impressive 14 to 17 feet and can weigh as much as 2,200 pounds!

Skillset: Both gators and crocs can swim quite well, using their tail to maneuver through the water with ease. They can both also run about 11 miles per hour on land. When submerged in water, both reptiles can hold their breath for up to an hour. With eyes on the top of their heads, they’re tough to surprise. Both alligators and crocodiles are also excellent hunters after dark, as night vision is their forte.

Crocodylidae and Alligatoridae Families

The Crocodylidae family includes 15 species of “true” crocodiles, and the Alligatoridae family contains eight species of alligators and caimans.

Where Do Alligators and Crocodiles Live?

Water: These beautiful animals can be found all over the world – wherever slow-flowing rivers and grasslands dominate that you could see on an Everglades boat . Crocodiles tend to prefer salty waters, while alligators hang out in freshwater marshes.

Geographical Location: Alligators thrive in China and the southeastern portion of the United States, particularly Florida and the states along the Gulf Coast. Crocodiles are native to North, Central, and South America, Africa, Australia, and part of Asia. Interestingly, the Florida Everglades is the only place in the world where both alligators and crocodiles live together.

Meet the Alligators

Are you ready to come face to face with a living dinosaur? You can at Everglades Holiday Park! Our gator park is a premier destination for families, outdoor enthusiasts, and reptile aficionados alike. There’s no better place to experience exciting Everglades airboat tours, live alligator presentations, and Everglades animal encounters with the chance to pose with a baby alligator for a picture. Our park is South Florida’s best family fun locale for adventure.

As home to the Gator Boys Alligator Rescue, Everglades Holiday Park welcomes families, outdoor enthusiasts, and anyone interested in Everglades sightseeing and journeying through the ‘Glades in search of alligators, wading birds, fish, snakes, and more!

Credit : Everglades holiday park 

Picture Credit : Google 

A frilled lizard has grayish-brown scales and is usually about 3 feet in length. Though it’s large in size, it weighs just over 1 pound. Line up two and a half bowling pins and you’re looking at the length of a 3-foot frilled lizard. A frilled lizard that weighs a little over 1 pound is about equal in weight to a can of soup.

This lizard has a long tail and claws made for hanging onto the trunk of a tree to climb it in quick fashion. The brown-gray scales of this lizard help to camouflage it in the trees.

5 Incredible Frilled Lizard Facts!

• It’s sometimes called the bicycle lizard because of the way its hind legs move when it’s running
• They are kept in some households as exotic pets that need special care
• The female lays eggs up to 8 inches underground
• These lizards are not poisonous
• They can live up to 20 years

There are 420 species in the same family (Agamidae) as the frilled lizard, however no other lizards share its distinctive frill. The frilled dragon is solitary and remains alone most of the time except during breeding season. The frilled lizard lives in northern Australia and New Guinea. This reptile lives in a warm environment. Its habitat includes woodland savannas as well as temperate and tropical forests.

What eats frilled lizards?

Birds of prey such as eagles, owls and hawks, snakes, dingoes, larger lizards, and feral cats are predators of these lizards.

What does a frilled lizard eat?

Insects play a large role in the diet of the frilled agama aka the frilled lizard. Cicadas, spiders, beetles, ants, termites, moths, and butterflies are all on the menu. These reptiles also eat small mammals such as mice and rats. They’ve been known to eat smaller lizards as well.

Frilled Lizard Reproduction, Babies and Lifespan

The breeding season of these lizards runs from September to October. The male lizards compete for females by fighting and displaying their neck frills. Also, a male bobs his head up and down to get a female’s attention. Female lizards lay their eggs between the months of November to February. The eggs are laid from 1 to 8 inches below ground. These lizards usually choose to dig the hole in a sunny area, so the sunlight gives some warmth to their eggs. A female lays from 8 to 14 soft-shelled eggs in one clutch. The incubation period of the eggs is 2 to 3 months. Each egg weighs less than an ounce in size. Some females have 2 clutches of eggs per season.

Baby lizards are able to survive without any care from their parents after they hatch. Each baby is about as long as an adult’s pinkie finger! And, yes, baby lizards have full use of their neck frill. They can eat small insects including ants and termites. Generally, a lizard stays with its brothers and sisters for about 10 days before leaving to establish its own life.

The lifespan of this lizard can go as high as 20 years! In fact, a 20-year-old frilled lizard living in captivity holds the record as the oldest of its kind.

Frilled Lizard Population

According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the exact population of this reptile is unknown. This is because these lizards are quick to hide making it difficult to record an accurate count. However, their official conservation status is Least Concern.

Credit : A-Z Animals 

Picture Credit : Google 

Physical Description

The Gaboon vipers’ coloration is a combination of light and dark brown, pink and purple arranged in diamonds and stripes along its back.  Light and dark lines radiate from around its small eyes.

It has a short tail, and its broad head mimics a fallen leaf, right down to the central vein. This striking pattern is excellent camouflage in the snake’s native habitat, helping it blend into the leaf litter on the forest floor.

Size

Gaboon vipers are the largest vipers in Africa, weighing more than 45 pounds (20 kilograms) and reaching lengths of more than 6 feet (1.8 meters). The largest individuals have heads nearly 6 inches (15 centimeters) across at their widest point.

Native Habitat

These vipers live in rainforests and wet areas in parts of Central, East and West Africa. They are terrestrial and can be found on the forest floor.

Food/Eating Habits

They eat small and medium-sized mammals and birds. Gaboon vipers are passive hunters, waiting concealed to strike at whatever small creatures pass within range. Most snakes strike and release, but this viper holds on until its prey dies.

Gaboon vipers have a placid nature and very rarely bite humans. Most bites occur when the snake is stepped on before it has an opportunity to get away. If harassed, it will raise the upper part of its body and hiss in threat before actually striking.

In addition to its unwillingness to bite, the viper can control whether it injects venom and how much, so the result of a strike can range from no effect to rapid death. A hungry snake will strike at almost any sideways movement, so some bites might well be a result of mistaken identity.

At the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, Gaboon vipers eat mice and rats.

Reproduction and Development

Females can have 50 to 60 babies at a time. The young are born live.

Lifespan

Gaboon vipers live for about 20 years.

Credit : Nationalzoo & conservation biology institute 

Picture Credit : Google 

Here are a few things you may not know about them:

1. Lizards can’t feel warm or cold the way we can. But their movements and speed are affected by the outside temperature. So for instance, while they can’t feel cold, cold will make them slow. Imagine instead of saying “I feel cold” you would simply not be able to move as quickly.
2. Green iguanas become immobile when the temperature drops below 40 degrees. Since they often like to sit in trees, when the weather in places where they live, like South Florida, gets very cold they have been known to drop out of trees. While these iguanas may appear to be dead, they are often simply cold and will thaw out in the sun. However, you should never move a frozen iguana as they often become frightened as they thaw. When they become frightened, they become unpredictable. Experts would rather you leave them where they are or notify a professional to have them moved.
3. As prevalent as the Green Iguana is in Southern Florida, it is not indigenous. They were originally brought to the area as pets and were later released into the wild where they thrived. We also see this in pythons and lionfish. Never release an animal into the wild. It will affect the local ecosystem and can, in some cases, mar it for decades.
4. Evidence of the earliest reptiles dates back to 312 million years ago.
5. Although reptiles are often found in warm areas, they actually inhabit every continent but Antarctica.
6. Reptiles come in a broad range of sizes. Of the living versions, not including anything that’s extinct, The tiniest is the gecko at under an inch and the largest on record is the saltwater crocodile, which can reach about 20 feet long.
7. A crocodile needs a tenth of the food a lion does for survival. That’s why the crocodile can go up to half a year without eating, if necessary. Because of this, crocodiles can survive temporary food shortages that might kill off or cause other animals to leave an area for food. A crocodile will stay in an area long after its main food source is gone or it may look for another one. That’s the reason why when new developments are built around water, these animals may stay long after others have left due to human invasion.
8. All reptiles use lungs to breathe.
9. Most reptilians must hold their breath while swallowing. This is not the case for crocodilians, who have a secondary palate that allows them to continue breathing even while their mouth is full of struggling prey.
10. The turtles’ lungs are attached to the inside of the top of their shells.
11. On land, female green sea turtles do not breathe while they’re walking. They either rest and take a breath or wait until they are in the nest they’ve created.
12. Reptiles’ skin is watertight, meaning they do not get soggy and water does not penetrate their scales.
13. Reptiles shed their skin periodically. The younger they are, the more often they shed.
14. Snakes shed from head to tail in one whole section, which you know if you ever come across a snakeskin. Some snakeskins, at first glance, almost look like the snake they came from. On the other hand, lizards shed their skin in patchy sections.
15. Some tortoises have disproportionately large bladders. Charles Darwin noted that the Galapagos turtle can store 20% of its body weight in its bladder.
16. Some reptiles that live in desert climates have secondary bladders that allow them to store water for several months.
17. Reptiles digest food slower than mammals do. This is due to a slower metabolism but also the fact that many reptiles do not masticate (or chew) on their prey. Many just swallow it whole.
18. Large reptiles, like crocodiles and constrictors, can live several months on a single meal.
19. Some reptiles that eat plants and lack the teeth to chew them actually swallow rocks to aid in the digestion of this plant matter.
20. Reptiles are considered less intelligent than mammals because the size of their brain relative to their body is smaller. However, larger reptiles have been known to play (the Komodo dragon) and show cooperation (monitors), so this may be a slightly unfair assumption.
21. Most reptiles can see colors better than most mammals can.

Credit : Alligator wildlife discovery centre 

Picture Credit : Google