Monday, September 13, 2010

Alligator: Cruel creature

Have you ever seen an animal as cruel as alligator? What ever it finds, it becomes his meat. A nice lunch for this cruel creature. Both animals and human beings are afraid of this creature.




An alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatorade. There are two extant alligatorspecies: the American alligator (Alligator mississippiansis) and the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis).
Photo credit: Google
The name alligator is an anglicized form of el lagarto, the Spanish term for "lizard", which early Spanish explorers and settlers in Florida called the alligator.
There are many adaptations for the American alligator. Baby alligators have an egg tooth that helps them get out of their egg during hatching time. They also have a muscular flat tail that propels them forward while they swim.
Alligators consume food that could not be eaten in one bite by allowing it to rot or by biting and then spinning or convulsing wildly until bite-size chunks are torn off. This is referred to as a "death roll." A hard-wired response developed over millions of years of evolution, even juvenile alligators execute death rolls when presented with chunks of meat. Critical to the alligator's ability to initiate a death roll, the tail must flex to a significant angle relative to its body. An alligator with an immobilized tail cannot do a death roll.
Photo credit: Google
Most of the muscle in an alligator's jaw evolved to bite and grip prey. The muscles that close the jaws are exceptionally powerful, however the muscles for opening their jaws are relatively weak in comparison. As a result, an adult man can hold an alligator's jaws shut with his bare hands. In general, a strip of duct tape is enough to prevent an adult alligator from opening its jaws and is one of the most common methods used when alligators are to be captured and/or transported. Alligators are generally timid towards humans and tend to walk or swim away if one approaches. Unfortunately, this has led some people to the practice of approaching alligators and their nests in a way that may provoke the animals into attacking. In the state of Florida, it is illegal to feed wild alligators at any time. If fed, the alligators will eventually lose their fear of humans and will learn to associate humans with food, thereby becoming a greater danger to people.
Little have we know about the alligator but one thing for sure is that, they are dangerous and cruel creature.


Source: en.wikipedia.org

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