Stones are swallowed to aid in digestion. Reproduction During the spring, at night, males attract females by bellowing loudly and giving off a musky secretion from chin glands. The female builds a nest mound of mud and vegetation, and lays thirty to seventy eggs. Unlike most reptiles, alligator females protect the nest. The 8-inch young hatch and grow about 1 ft. a year.
Females show some protection of young.
They are very common and are perhaps the most studied of all crocodilians. They are not threatened. All Rights reserved.