That’s a straight-up dinosaur…
The American alligator is an apex predator built for the swamps, marshes, and slow-moving rivers of the southeastern United States. Operating as the ultimate opportunist, its biology, diet, and hunting mechanics have remained completely unchanged for millions of years. Like I said… straight-up dinosaurs.
One of the most frightening aspects of alligator biology is the bite force. The American alligator boasts one of the most powerful bites in the animal kingdom, capable of slamming its jaws shut with a force of up to 2,980 pounds per square inch (PSI). This immense pressure is designed to effortlessly crack open turtle shells and crush the bones of large mammals.
While the muscles that close their jaws are terrifyingly strong, the muscles used to open them are almost comically weak. A fully grown adult alligator’s jaws can easily be held shut by a human’s bare hands, a zip tie, or a few wraps of electrical tape. Of course, we’ve all seen someone jump on an alligator’s back and hold its mouth shut—it’s not hard to do.
Of course, if they do get their mouth on you, there are nearly 100 teeth in there doing damage. But these teeth are not meant for slicing or chewing; they are strictly for gripping and crushing. Alligators have between 74 and 80 teeth in their mouth at any given time, and surprisingly, they’re not very sharp. They’re more like stubby football cleats.
Because they frequently break teeth on hard prey, they continuously regenerate them, cycling through upwards of 3,000 teeth in a single lifetime.
Ambush Hunting
Alligators are highly energy-efficient ambush predators. Their eyes, ears, and nostrils are positioned at the very top of their skull, allowing them to remain completely submerged and hidden in murky water while still breathing and monitoring the surface for prey.
The skin around an alligator’s jawline features highly sensitive receptors that can pick up very subtle changes in water pressure, allowing an alligator to instantly detect the exact location and movement of a struggling fish or a raccoon taking a drink at the water’s edge, even in complete darkness.
An alligator’s diet changes drastically as it grows. Juveniles primarily eat insects, snails, frogs, and small fish. Fully grown adults will eat whatever is easiest to catch, including fish, turtles, wading birds, snakes, raccoons, muskrats, and feral hogs. They are also highly cannibalistic and will readily eat smaller alligators to reduce competition for resources.
To process a diet consisting of whole turtles, hooves, and bones, an alligator’s stomach produces some of the strongest gastric acid in the animal kingdom, featuring a pH level of less than 2. Their highly corrosive digestive juices can break down almost any organic material they swallow. Scientists have also been known to find a number of bizarre objects in their stomachs: tires, license plates, bullets, and cell phones.
Much like birds, alligators frequently swallow stones, known as gastroliths. These rocks sit in their stomachs and help grind up hard material like shells and bones, while also helping to regulate their buoyancy underwater.
But if you want to see this ambush hunting in action, look no further.
Here we have an alligator eyeballing a drone from the water, and as it gets closer, we see the alligator absolutely explode out of the water toward the machine.
And while that previous gator missed, this drone pilot wasn’t so lucky…
This scenario happened to one unfortunate soul, who decided to take the drone out over the water. In the video, you can see the drone zoom in on an alligator that’s staring it down like a hawk. Sure enough, the person decided to lower the drone closer to the water, and see ya later.
The gator jumps up, and grabs the drone like it’s food. According to the drone pilot, he didn’t even see it coming:
“I went on a fishing trip and was flying my first drone. I didn’t even see the alligator before he jumped.”
So if ya ever wanted to know what your last sight would be before getting sent to the afterlife while getting eaten alive (I don’t know why on earth you would), here ya go.
Alligator Smokes In Mouth After Eating Drone
Alligators are known to eat the odd strange thing. Anytime they slice one open they inevitably find a wild amount of stuff inside. We’re talking dog collars, car parts, bullets, thousand-year-old arrow heads and sometimes, even human remains…
They also indulge in the odd bit of garbage eating. That should be enough to scare you off of these creatures. Anything that can swallow trash is definitely capable of chewing up a human.
Gators are incredible predators that strike with speed in short bursts trying to use the element of surprise.
This fella found that out the hard way when he flew his drone in trying to get some good shots.
Out of nowhere the gator leaps up and grabs the drone flying above him in the air. Onlookers watched as the gator tries to scarf the drone down, but after a few good chomps the drone starts smoking very badly as everyone yells at the gator to stop.
The gator just doesn’t care though, it keeps on chewing with the smoke coming out like there’s a fire lit in his stomach. I mean, it looked like a literal fire breathing dragon…
Yup, that’s how tough these prehistoric beasts are… they will swallow a drone that’s nearly on fire and not think twice about it.
