Florida Everglades Airboating

12 Things You Should Know about Alligators and Everglades Wildlife

If you’re curious about alligators and other wildlife in the Everglades, you’re in luck! We’ve put together 12 interesting things you might want to know. Whether you’re thinking about vacationing in the Everglades or looking things up after you’ve already been there, you’ll find these blog posts informative:

1. What Is an Alligator?
2. What’s the Difference between Alligators and Crocodiles?
3. How Big Are Alligators?
4. How Fast Can Alligators Run?
5. What Alligators Eat
6. Alligator Reproduction: Ladies Appreciate a Fellow Who Can Bellow
7. Are Alligators Endangered?
8. Where to See Alligators
9. Fun Alligator Facts and Trivia
10. Birds of the Everglades
11. Burmese Pythons in the Everglades
12. Mammals in the Everglades

You can also download all of these articles in one convenient, free eBook, 12 Things You Should Know about Alligators and Everglades Wildlife!

Wild pig. Photo courtesy of Flickr user minds-eye.

If you decide to enjoy a tour through the amazing Florida Everglades, you won’t be the only mammal out there! There are more than forty species of mammals that inhabit Everglades National Park. However, many of these species are found in the drier habitats of forest and field, which are further east in the Everglades. You won’t be likely to see these animals around Everglades City, but you will see plenty of birds, reptiles, and other aquatic animals.

This is the last of 12 Things You Should Know about Alligators and Everglades Wildlife, a free eBook.

Mammals have adapted to the semi-aquatic environment which makes up much of the Everglades. In our part of Everglades National park, you may see white-tailed deer wading through the sawgrass prairie or a bobcat in the mangroves, foraging for food.

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Photo courtesy of Flickr user Tambako the Jaguar.

You’ve probably heard recent stories in the news of extraordinarily large pythons in the Florida Everglades. You’re unlikely to see these snakes on an Everglades City airboat tour, since they’re primarily found in the areas much further east in the Everglades. However, with the recent epidemic of these exotic snakes in the Everglades, they are certainly worth mentioning.

This is the eleventh of 12 Things You Should Know about Alligators and Everglades Wildlife, a free eBook.

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If you’re like us, you think the Everglades is a very special place, and you want to do what you can to protect it for future generations.

That’s why we recently added recycling to Captain Doug’s Everglades Tours! Now, when you visit us, you can put your recyclable cans, bottles, paper, and plastic into our recycle bin.

Bigger cities sometimes include recycling services with trash pickup, but Everglades City, where we operate, doesn’t. So we hired a waste management company to run a special recycling pickup for us and our customers.

The Everglades is unique. We hope you’ll join us in helping to protect it!

Although alligators win the popularity contest of animals that people hope to see when they visit the Everglades, there are many other fascinating forms of wildlife that you will likely encounter.

This is the tenth of 12 Things You Should Know about Alligators and Everglades Wildlife, a free eBook.

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Photo courtesy of Flickr user jking89.

Here are some fun alligator facts to help you win at trivia games!

The average lifespan of an American alligator is about 30-35 years, but in captivity they can live more than 50 years.

The oldest alligator in captivity lives in the Belgrade Zoo in Serbia. He’s named Mujo, and he’s over 76 years old!

This is the ninth of 12 Things You Should Know about Alligators and Everglades Wildlife, a free eBook.

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Photo courtesy of Flickr user Guillaume Capron.

One of the best places to spot an alligator is on a Florida Everglades airboat tour, which puts you right in the middle of an alligator’s natural habitat. American alligators are mostly found in the Southeastern United States. You can see them anywhere from Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina all the way south to the Everglades National Park in Florida. You can also find them as far west as the southern tip of Texas.

This is the eighth of 12 Things You Should Know about Alligators and Everglades Wildlife, a free eBook.

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Alligator hide. Photo courtesy of Flickr user zappowbang.

This is the seventh of 12 Things You Should Know about Alligators and Everglades Wildlife, a free eBook.

Alligators are no longer considered endangered. However, at one point, alligators were in great danger of extinction. From the 1800s through the mid-1900s, gators were often hunted for their skins, which were used in making leather. They were also poached for meat. This large-scale hunting and poaching, along with loss of habitat, reduced the alligator population so dramatically that it was on the brink of extinction. In 1967, the alligator was listed as an endangered species, and was considered in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 prohibited alligator hunting, allowing the species to rebound in many areas where it had been depleted.

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This is the sixth of 12 Things You Should Know about Alligators and Everglades Wildlife, a free eBook.

When alligators are 8 to 13 years old, they are ready to mate and reproduce. Like many other animals, this usually happens in the spring. Alligators have no vocal chords, but this doesn’t stop them from belting out love songs. The male alligator sucks air into his lungs and blows it out in intermittent, deep-toned roars. In fact, if they want to really impress the ladies, male alligators use infrasound in their bellowing! Infrasound is a sound lower in frequency than the human ear can hear.

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Breakfast, lunch and dinner? Courtesy of Flickr user ingridtaylar.

This is the fifth of 12 Things You Should Know about Alligators and Everglades Wildlife, a free eBook.

Alligators are mostly opportunistic predators. They eat whatever is the easiest prey, based on size and availability. Their diet consists primarily of fish, birds, turtles, snakes, frogs, mammals and crème brûlée (we may have made that last one up).

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