Animal Wednesday #81

Let's get acquainted today with one of the most calm representatives of the crocodiles - the Chinese alligator.

Chinese Alligator

One of the smallest species of crocodilians, the Chinese alligator attains a length of 1.5–2.1 metres (5–7 ft) and weight of 36–45 kilograms (80–100 lb) as an adult. Females are roughly three-quarters the length of males. It is less than half the size of the American alligator, which typically grows to a length of 3.4 metres (11.2 ft) for males and 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) for females. Reports are known of alligators in China reaching 3.0 metres (10 ft) in past centuries, but these are no longer thought to be accurate.

The Chinese alligator is almost completely black or dark gray in color as an adult. It has a short and broad snout, which points slightly upwards and narrows at the end. Its head is robust, more so than that of the American alligator, with a bony septum dividing its nostrils. It has 72–76 teeth, of which 13–14 are maxillary, five premaxillary, and 18–19 mandibular. Unlike the American alligator, the Chinese alligator is fully armored, including its belly. It contains up to 17 rows of scales across its body, which are soft on its belly and side and rougher on its back. Its upper eyelids have bony plates on them, a feature usually not present in the American alligator. Its tail is wider than that of the American alligator. It does not have webbed feet, in contrast to the American alligator, which has extensive webbing on its toes.

The habitat of the Chinese alligator is bodies of fresh water, particularly wetlands and ponds, in areas transitioning between subtropical and temperate climates. It lives at the base of mountains, in areas where grass and shrubs are common. Habitat loss has also forced it to live at higher elevations than it prefers, where the weather is colder and the soil is unfit for burrow digging.

The Chinese alligator is an opportunistic feeder, meaning that it can prey on a variety of different animals depending on what is available. It is a carnivore, mostly eating fish and invertebrates, such as crustaceans, insects, mussels, and snails. When possible, it eats rodents and aquatic birds as well. It has dull teeth, which allow it to eat prey with shells more easily. A study of the alligator in 1985 showed that snails were the most common animal in its diet at 63%, with 65% of that being river snails and 35% spiral-shelled snails. According to the survey, its diet also contained 16% rabbits, 8.3% mollusks, and 4.1% shrimp, with the remaining 6.8% being frogs, fish, and insects.

The Chinese alligator is a vocal species, making many different sounds in multiple situations. When communicating with nearby alligators, it produces sounds such as head slapping, hissing, and whining, which have a low sound pressure level (SPL). To communicate long-distance, it produces bellows, which have a high SPL. All of these sounds have a low frequency of less than 500 hertz, due to the alligator's densely vegetated habitat, which allow the sounds to spread across a greater area.

Both sexes participate in bellowing choruses during the mating season as adults. Lasting an average of 10 minutes, the alligators remain still for the entirety of the chorus, with both sexes responding equally in rough unison. The main purpose of these bellows is to call out to alligator specimens to collect at a specific pond, where individuals choose mates and engage in copulation. Alligators may also bellow to publicize their size, a behavior which occurs