Alligator mississippiensis

(Rawr!)

The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is a common resident in southeast United States. I was a TA for Hays Cummins' Marine Ecology course, part of which spends a day in the Everglades. where this picture was taken.

The American alligator was threatened in the earlier part of the century by illegal poaching: alligator skin products were a lucrative market. To counteract poaching, alligator farms were created to 1) help repopulate alligators 2) depreciate the value of alligator skin and thus discourage illegal poaching by making it unprofitable.

Today, both alligator meat and alligator skin products are still around. They are delicious and gawdy, respectively. A bigger threat to alligator population is enroaching urbanization, exotic invasive species, and the increased demand for water that filters the water from Lake Okeechobee before it reaches the Everglades.

Urbanization has put people's housing right against the alligator's natural habitat. People feed the alligators and the alligators eat their dogs. Feeding the alligators have made them unafraid of humans, which is partially why this gator swam so close for us to snap a picture.

Burmese pythons have also invaded Florida and are a sizeable top-tier predator population, which competes with and even eats some American alligators.

Miami/Ft. Lauderdale/Farming have increased demand for water towards the eastern seaboard. Lake Okeechobee, which sits in the center of Florida, supplies water to all of southern Florida. The Everglades, now just a small fraction at the tip of Florida, receives less and less water with the diversion of water flow east to supply a growing demand. The effects are felt most at the southern tip, where estuarian communities require a balance between fresh and salt water to thrive.

-BL