The American alligator is native to many states that are in the south in the United States. Alligators like to live in the southern states where it is warmer even during the winter for example; Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas. The water is much warmer in the south since is closer to the equator. Not only do they like to live in warm water but also in freshwater. They create burrows that go as deep as 20 feet on the bottom. Alligators live in rivers lakes and other small bodies of water.

All Alligators and every other animal have to start somewhere there are 4 different life stages of the American Alligator. To begin the Alligators life it starts in the egg stage. Like any other living organism it needs to be able to go and develop enough inside its mother to survive growing all the necessary organs to live. The second stage is the juvenile stage. This stage is when the Alligator hatches from the egg and starts its life living in the world. As soon as they come out of the egg the mother brings them straight to the water there they start their hunting life even though they are small. Moving along in their life is the stage called adulthood. Adulthood is when they are now old enough to produce their own eggs be on their own and breed with other Alligators.

In addition to the life stages of the Alligator is how long the Alligator will live its life for. Alligators depending on the condition Alligators can live anywhere from 30-50 years as an adult. 1 ) Alligator embryo inside the egg.

All alligators are carnivores. In other words “meat eaters”. When in the juvenile stage the Alligators will tend to stick to the smaller animals for instance a big variety of insects. As they grow older and bigger, they will move on to a much bigger variety of food .like turtles, snakes, snails, low-moving fish, birds and other small mammals. As an adult they eat small calves and even but very occasionally humans!

Living in some of the murky waters that they do can lead to health issues... Fungi, parasites, viruses, bacteria, infectious diseases, yellow fat disease, starvation, blood sugar levels, nutritional problems, poor sanitation, cold, stress, and runts, can all affect the Alligator in dangerous, negative ways. As many of these gators die it could lead to them being endangered. It was listed as an endangered species starting in 1967 then was later removed from the list in the year of 1987 after the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service pronounced a complete recovery of the species.

No matter the species they all go through struggles and challenges on an everyday basis. For the Alligator it deals with habitat loss, when the ground gets too dry they move and make a new burrow in a new spot. Another one they come across is human interactions many alligators live near golf courses which isn’t good for them dealing with the humans feeding them. The saying is “a fed gator is a dead gator.” Pollution in the water can put toxins in there body that can cause them to get ill and die. It’s also the other animals that can harm them. Although gators are big and eat many things, they aren’t on the top of the food chain. They have other predators like larger gators, snakes, otters, large bass, and bob cats.
2) Young alligator in juvenile stage

3) Juvenile alligators on the back of their mothers.

4) The adulthood stage.

5) Reproductive stage.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/t0226e/t0226e13.htm http://tracker.cci.fsu.edu/alligator/about/where/ http://animals.pawnation.com/life-stages-alligator-2348.html