Love alligators yet scared of adult alligator sounds?

Caters

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I love alligators. They are one of my favorite reptiles. So I installed an alligator sounds app. I love the baby alligators calls. But the adult alligator sounds make me startled as if there was a real alligator around. I am too far north for it to be an actual alligator.

So why is it that I love alligators and am not scared of other big animal sounds like lion roars but alligator hisses and growls scare me? Is it because my brain thinks "lion roars are just communication but alligator hisses and growls means "run to the trees to escape the alligator""?
 

Maryn

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Caters, I'm a big believer in the most primitive parts of our brains working exactly as nature intended them to. Since the adult makes those sounds when it's attacking, your brain knows to process that into fear and discomfort even though its higher levels know there's not really an alligator there.

It's the same reason I cannot not recoil from a snake in motion, even though there are no venomous snakes where I hike. I have a similar but lesser reaction to large spiders in motion, although they are always garden spiders and harmless.

So hurray for our brains' efforts to protect us humans from predators, huh?

Maryn, who also gets tickly thinking about ants
 

Caters

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Yeah I know that the lower levels having to do with fear and discomfort came from mammals and the ones having to do with anger and attack came from reptiles other than crocodilians(They, like us have evolved a neocortex and are thus able to be trained right from when they hatch and they also have fear and discomfort, especially of larger crocodilians that aren't their moms)

But I am not scared of a lion's roar and a lion is a large predator. Probably because I am now so acclimated to the sound that even if it is an actual lion making that sound I still won't be scared. And this is partly due to watching lion documentaries. However most of the results I get when looking up "Alligator documentary" are things like alligators hatching, 4 parts of a movie about reptiles, Wild kratts Crocogator Contest, Zoboomafoo Who's in the Egg, etc. and not alligator documentaries.

With so many people being near alligators and so few people being near lions, you would think it would be much easier to find alligator documentaries.

And an alligator giving you a warning is nothing to be afraid of and neither is an actual alligator attack because alligator attacks end in very few fatalities. Also many people know that if an alligator starts hissing and growling, you should get out of the way and fast because even though alligators can run at 30 mph, it is only for a short time. In fact this "gatorphobia" is probably what provokes these alligators in the first place other than being too close to an alligator nest and holding a baby alligator.

So I know there must be a way to get over my fear of alligator hisses and growls. But how?
 
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Caters

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Crocodile giving birth to alligators?

Here is the video I am talking about:


It says it is a crocodile laying eggs and it looks like a crocodile. Even the egg hatching looks like a crocodile. But at the end I see baby alligators.

And when I get a closer look at the mother I can see yellow stripes which tells me that it is an alligator.

But alligators don't usually have stripes when they lay eggs. They are usually solid colored at that point.

So is this a crocodile laying eggs in an alligator nest or what?
 

Caters

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Yeah it is possible that the baby alligators came from somewhere else. But it is also possible that this crocodile layed eggs in an alligator nest or that an alligator layed eggs in a crocodile nest and thus the crocodile is taking care of both her baby crocodiles and baby alligators.

I mean in the everglades I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of thing happened since alligator mating seasons and crocodile mating seasons overlap. But if a crocodile is taking care of baby alligators will those alligators eat mainly fish? And if an alligator is taking care of baby crocodiles will they eat fish, birds, reptiles, and mammals? In other words would alligators taken care of by a crocodile adapt the crocodile's lifestyle and would crocodiles taken care of by an alligator adapt the alligator's lifestyle?
 

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It has been my understanding that crocodiles in general (while the female will protect the nest and the new-born young for a while) do not actually feed their young. So the young crocodiles or alligators do not get shown by their mother what prey they could eat or how to hunt like other predators say, tigers and lions do. And that young crocodiles do not yet have the same diet as adults, since their size prevents predation of the same species. Young crocodiles often turn to insects and tadpoles in their early stages. (But I am mostly unfamiliar with the American crocodile specifically so they may do things differently.)

Gator nests, I've heard, are often co-opted by other species for egg incubation. (Never heard of it being done by a croc, but that doesn't mean it can't happen.) But I agree with helix, that a mixing of croc and gator footage may have occurred.
 

Caters

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Alligator or alligator lizard?


Near the beginning of this video I see a reptile that looks like an alligator.

My mind is like "it has the bumps and stripes of an alligator but it can't be an alligator since an alligator that size would still have bright yellow stripes."

So is it a juvenile alligator or is it an alligator lizard(which is a lizard that looks like an alligator)?
 

Caters

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But the stripes look too dark for it to be an alligator the size that it is. I would expect much brighter stripes for an alligator that size.
 

Darron

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The bright stripes fade quickly as it grows, if you check out near the tail you still see the old pattern as this young alligator walks by. You can google "young alligator" and it matches pretty easily. Alligator lizards really look nothing like alligators.
 

Caters

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But if alligator lizards don't look like alligators than why is the alligator lizard called that? Is it that it is one of the young alligator's predators or that it has a wide snout like an alligator does(same reason an alligator gar is called that)?
 

Darron

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I'm not sure on the origin of the name. Unfortunately not everything is as obviously named as blue-footed booby or red-tailed hawk.
I hope no one actually confused a spider monkey with an actual spider, that would be terrifying.
 

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I'm not sure on the origin of the name. Unfortunately not everything is as obviously named as blue-footed booby or red-tailed hawk.
I hope no one actually confused a spider monkey with an actual spider, that would be terrifying.

Or the baboon spider with a...No, that's horrifying either way.
 

Caters

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Do alligators fight over mating rights?

I know that 1 female alligator might mate with multiple males before she lays eggs.

I also know that 2 alligators of the same size often fight with each other. Even baby alligators will fight with other members of the pod.

So if multiple male alligators live in a female alligator's territory do they fight over mating rights?