BY: Oscar Ronquillo

Egg Stage The mother lays up to hatch during may through june

Youth Stage These eggs incubate for 65 days, then hatch into 6-inch baby alligators. Baby alligators stay with their mother for a few years, depending on her for food and protection. The Smithsonian website states that young alligators grow about 1 foot a year.

Looks Alligators feature long snouts with up to 80 teeth, long lizard-like bodies, short legs and long powerful tails that propel them through the water. Their skin is thick, green, brown or black, and scaly. Alligators may grow to over 8 feet at mature.

Mature Stage They are considered to be adults at six years, and safe from predators at 4 feet in length. They generally leave their mothers and become self-sufficient at 4 feet. Wild alligators live for up to 50 years.

why we kill them for skin Most alligator and crocodile skins come from factory farms with about 85% of all alligator skins coming from Louisiana. “Raising alligators isn't much different from being a chicken farmer or a catt rancy, a wildlife biologist at the state-administered Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana. Indeed, specifications based “primarily on the actual practices of alligator farms” inform would-be farmers that they “are able to lower their costs by doing much of the construction work themselves, buying used equipment, using less space per alligator, and using lower cost building designs... A low-cost farm also has three grow-out buildings.

Recources facts.com 1 2

The Alligator Cycle Egg Stage Youth stage Adult stage

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