American alligators once faced extinction.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service placed them on the endangered species list in 1967. Fortunately, the legal protection worked. Just 20 years later, American alligators were taken off the list.
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| Photo credit Bob Peterson |
Brought back from the brink of extinction, over a million of these reptiles survive today. Now the main threat to alligators is habitat destruction, caused by such human activities as draining and developing wetlands.
An average male American alligator is 10 to 15 feet (three to five meters) long. Half of its length is its massive, strong tail. An alligator can weigh as much as half a ton (1,000 pounds), but an average male weighs between 500 and 600 pounds (227 to 272 kilograms). Females are usually smaller than males.
[source: National Geographic]
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