According to scientists, not all of the dinosaurs and their relatives died out long ago. The current theory is that the American alligator, a threatened species, has been here on Earth for about 230 million years. Of course, 230 million years ago, their only threat came from nature, but over time, humans have stepped in to harm this species. If it were not for the alligator's natural adaptability, and the stringent conservation laws in place, humans may have succeeded in eliminating another dinosaur from the face of the Earth.

Luckily, alligators have managed to adapt to their changing environment. Alligators prefer to live in freshwater environments, specifically swamps, marshes, and lakes. They have also been found in some unusual places too, such as underneath cars in driveways, drainage ditches, and swimming pools. Unfortunately, being found in these places tend to lead to a lot of human/alligator encounters. Most of the time when human/alligator encounters occur, wildlife officials will come in and move the alligator to a safer environment. Unfortunately, alligators, like turtles, have a keen homing instinct, and will frequently return to the same area within a couple days of being relocated.

Despite these encounters, there have been very few human fatalities reported since the 1950's. There have been more alligator fatalities at the hands of humans than human fatalities due to encounters with alligators. Before the 1960's, the American alligator was facing the threat of extinction due to hunters killing them for their meat and skin. In the 1960's, hunting was declared illegal in Florida; however, poaching still does occur even to this day. After being declared an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1967, the alligator started to make a comeback thanks to the prohibition of hunting, which allowed the species to rebound in areas where the population had been depleted. In Florida, yearly counts of the population have been done since 1974.

Although alligators have started to make a comeback, and were downlisted from endangered to threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1987, threats to their survival still remain. Two of the biggest threats to their survival now are habitat loss and tourism. Habitat loss to suburban development in their range (North Carolina to Florida) is not too surprising considering the amount of wildlife that is endangered in the southern U.S.; however, tourism is surprising.

What is happening is a dangerous side effect of the eco-tourism industry. What happens is that people are very interested in seeing alligators in the wild that they oftentimes forget how dangerous wild animals, especially alligators, can be. People become careless, and do things that put themselves and others in danger. What these tourists will do is travel to areas where alligators are known to inhabit, and feed them. This is quite dangerous to do because the alligators will get used to being fed at that spot, and will also start to lose their natural fear of humans, making human/alligator encounters more numerous and dangerous.

Feeding alligators is prohibited in Florida, but unfortunately, it is not illegal in every state the alligator is found in. Wildlife officials are hoping that with more education, people will start to understand the danger of feeding wild alligators, and start to respect them, and give them their space.

One of the reasons this species is so dangerous is because of their size and strength. A full size adult male alligator will reach about 9-10 feet and weighs half a ton. Females are only a little bit smaller, at about 8 ˝ feet. Because the males are so big, the territory they inhabit is fairly large as well—sometimes as large as two miles! Females on the other hand, only occupy areas about half the size of the male's territory.

Alligators are usually fairly solitary creatures; however, males and females will start to pair up around April or May. After mating, the female will lay about 35-50 eggs. These eggs will incubate under a large nest of vegetation for 65 days. When they hatch, the baby alligators are about 6-8 inches long, and live in small groups called pods. The mother will stay with the babies for a couple years, aggressively defending them against such predators as bobcats, otters, snakes, and other larger alligators. During this time, the mother will also teach the young alligators how to catch prey such as fish, turtles, snakes, and small mammals.

Although alligators have been downlisted from endangered to threatened, extinction is still possible. Currently, many of the states the alligator inhabits allow hunting with permits; however, there is still the chance that even with limited hunting, it could upset the balance in nature, and make the alligator once again endangered.