Today, through strict laws, alligators may be harvested during very limited, controlled hunts and are raised in captivity for the production of meat and skins. Its long, rounded snout with nostrils at the end, enables it to breathe while most of the body is submerged. It has four very short legs with five toes on the front feet and four toes on the rear. The average adult size is 8.2 feet for females and 11.2 feet for males. They can reach a weight of more than a half a ton.
Adults are dark on top with pale undersides.
The young are black with yellowish crossbars. Alligators live in all Florida counties but are most common in the major river drainage basins and large lakes in the central and southern portion of the state. They can also be found in marshes, swamps drainage canals and ditches. A few even venture into salt water. Early operators of Florida's unique wildlife attractions discovered that the alligator would successfully breed and thrive in captivity, and the first alligator farm was established as a commercial enterprise in 1891.