Chatty Crocodilians

Baby American alligators from the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. Photo by William Stamps Howard, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Being in Corkscrew is my first exposure to the flora and fauna of southern Florida and I seem to find something new and exciting every day in the field. One day in my first week, my fellow intern Nick, a volunteer, the Corkscrew resource manager, and I loaded up into the truck and drove into the backcountry to clear coastal plain willow (Salix caroliniana). Coastal plain willow is a native plant, but it is thirsty and fire-resistant. As a result, it is important to manage their numbers and distribution so that they don’t dominate marshes and edge habitat.

As we unloaded, we passed by a small pond with a large female alligator (Alligator mississipiensis) and her pod of young. Between 25 and 30 of the small, dark and yellow striped alligators sat along the banks and atop logs. Upon seeing us, the juveniles scrambled into the water and started swimming towards the head of their mother en masse, making a loud chirping noise. It was the most endearing sound I’ve heard an animal make. Unfortunately, it is not a cry of joy but a distress call, alerting the mother to potential danger (four large animals with chainsaws will often give that impression).

At the end of the day I went home to investigate the call and found that young alligators are vocal right from the start. Hatchlings make grunting noises while in their eggs, alerting adult alligators prior to hatching and potentially to synchronize emergence with other members of the clutch. As the pod grows older under a mother’s care, the similar distress call is added. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, juvenile alligators have good reason to be cautious. On average, less than a dozen will graduate their mother’s care and fewer than five of the pod will live to maturity.

Listen to the surprisingly charming distress call here:

Learn more about vocalizations from my primary source here: 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/22225400_Vocalization_in_juvenile_crocodilians

Until Next Time! --- Kristina

Sources:

“Alligator Facts.” Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission    

           <http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/managed/alligator/facts/>.

Herzog, Harold A. and Gordon M. Burghardt, “Vocalizations in juvenile crocodilians.”         Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 44, 294-304. August 1997                      <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/22225400_Vocalization_in_juvenile_crocodilians>.