American Alligator Grows Based On Sexual Maturity, Could Still Produce Eggs At Old Age

Scientists believed that American alligators grow at full length until they die. However, a 35-year study by wildlife biologists from Clemson University and Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center discovered that this is not the actual case.

In the study "Determinate Growth and Reproductive Lifespan in the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis): Evidence from Long-term Recaptures," which was published in Bio One, scientists found out that the "indeterminate growth" concept or growing in length until their death is actually false in case of American alligators. Instead, alligators were observed to stop growing once they reached their sexual maturity, which is known as the "determinate growth".

The average length of a male American alligator could reach up to 4.6 m. Meanwhile, female American alligator could reach up to 2.6 m.

The study that spanned for three and a half decade focused on a population of American alligators at the Yawkey Center on the South Carolina coast. The population varies on male and female alligators.

In addition, the study also shows that females are reproductive far longer than what scientists believed before. It was found out that its 46 years past the onset of sexual maturity in one case.

In an article published in Phys.org Female American alligators are also found out to continue producing viable clutches of eggs. Some of the alligators observed could still produce large clutches of fertile eggs even if they have already reached the age of 70.

"We began by simply trying to determine the best way to count alligators along the South Carolina coast and monitor the population in a scientifically valid way," Phil Wilkinson, the lead author of this study, said. Wilkinson also said in subsequent years, many of the American alligators were already marked from previous research captures.

"We would ride around the property during spring basking time when there are a lot of alligators out and see that a lot of them were marked already," Wilkinson said. So they knew there was a good chance that they could recapture a lot of these American alligators and see how much they had grown, he added.

For Wilkinson, there are still a lot to unravel about the American Alligators. Wilkinson would also like to study on how these alligators are signaling other alligators when there is an abundance of food.