Did you know?
Sabal Springs has its own alligator mascot, his name is “Fred.” Fred likes to hang out by the 18th green on the golf course, and he’s a big boy. Like his counterparts, some male alligators can reach a weight of nearly half a ton. The largest alligator ever measured in Florida was 17 feet, 5 inches, with the average being 11.2 feet. If you are curious, the largest alligator ever measured in the United States was in Louisiana at 19 feet, 2 inches. That’s a lot of gator bites. Here are five other fun facts about Fred and his friends.
1. The American alligator is not endangered. Unlike their crocodile cousins, alligators are not endangered. They can be found in waterways from Florida to Texas and north all the way to North Carolina. They are actually an endangered species success story, and remain federally protected by the Endangered Species Act due to similarity of appearance to crocodiles, which are a federally protected species.
2. An alligator’s gender is determined by the temperature of the eggs. At colder temperatures, alligator eggs will produce females. At intermediate temperatures, the odds of producing a male alligator are 3-to-1.
3. Alligators have 74 to 80 teeth at any time and can go through 3,000 teeth in a lifetime. As alligators’ teeth wear down, new ones grow in to replace them.
4. Alligators live about 50 years in the wild. Once an alligator reaches 4 feet long, he or she is mostly safe from predators except man—and, occasionally, other alligators.
5. They’re a lot faster than we are. The record speed for a sprinting alligator is 27 mph – much faster than the average person can run. That’s why it’s so important to stay alert around any body of water in our area, because there’s a good chance there’s an alligator nearby—and it’s a lot faster on its feet than you think.
