Oh Snap!

The American alligator isn’t nearly as mean as it looks

The largest aquatic predator in Texas is one most animals never see coming: the American alligator. Found lurking throughout the Gulf Coast and up into parts of North and Central Texas, alligators inhabit large rivers, ponds, lakes, and swamps, striking out of muddy water to drag down prey. As hatchlings, they snack on insects and small fish before graduating to birds, turtles, and larger prey like deer and hogs.

While these leathery predators have a fearsome reputation, they’re the least aggressive among crocodilians—and more sophisticated than people assume. Some researchers have reported alligators using sticks to lure herons to the water. They’re also chatty: Baby alligators chirp for their mothers, and adults rumble or hiss. And while big males can be territorial, alligators sometimes join in large “dances” during the mating season.

Their prehistoric appearance led to a mania for gator leather in the 19th century, the same period when farmers and developers drained and filled in vast swaths of swamp. By 1967, the species’ population was so low that the U.S. government placed it under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, and Texas followed with its own designation in 1973. Gator populations recovered enough that they lost federal protection in 1987, but it remains a protected game animal in Texas.