{"id":1942,"date":"2024-01-29T20:27:20","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T01:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mote.org\/species\/american-alligator\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T00:00:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T05:00:31","slug":"american-alligator","status":"publish","type":"species","link":"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/american-alligator\/","title":{"rendered":"American alligator"},"content":{"rendered":"

American alligators are endemic to the United States, meaning they don’t exist anywhere else in the world. More specifically, they can be found in coastal wetlands anywhere from North Carolina to southern Florida. Long powerful tails and webbed feet make them strong swimmers. As cold-blooded creatures, alligators rely on their surroundings to provide warmth, like basking in the sun along the shore or digging holes in mud to trap heat. The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) lists the American alligator as Least Concern on their Red List of Threatened Species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23315,"template":"","class_list":["post-1942","species","type-species","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican alligator | Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/american-alligator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"American alligator | Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"American alligators are endemic to the United States, meaning they don’t exist anywhere else in the world. 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