American Alligator Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: We've been fortunate in being able to travel to a lot of really cool places over the years, including some truly wild places where there's some impressive megafauna that you might run into. We've hiked in Yellowstone National Park, Denali National Park, and Glacier National Park, each places where you could run across a bear (Grizzly or Black) while hiking. In fact we HAVE run into a Black Bear on a hike on a couple of occasions. It's an intimidating feeling, walking through a place like Yellowstone, far from the main roads, not a soul in sight, and realizing you're not the highest critter on the pecking order. However, you also realize that bears typically want absolutely nothing to do with you, and that if you make noise and are careful, its extremely unlikely they'll bother you.

I feel a little different though walking in and around swamps of the southeastern US. There you have to think about a critter that not only is the top of the food chain, but is one that may very perceive YOU to be food! It's not an overwhelming concern when you're down there, but it does definitely pay to be aware of your surroundings! That's why when on a hike in Everglades National Park in 2012, I was both delighted, and bit apprehensive, when running across a couple of very tiny baby alligators by the side of the path. Cute! Great photo opportunity! But at the same time...where is its mother? The young are largely on their own after hatching, gathering their own food, but sometimes the female will protect them for threats. Not wanting to be perceived as a threat to some unseen mother alligator that may have been nearby, I grabbed a few quick photographs and then moved on down the path. I was very glad for the opportunity though as I really do love this photo of the little guy.

American Alligator - Alligator mississippiensis


American Alligator 1	American Alligator 2	American Alligator 3	American Alligator 4
February 2008	December 10th, 2012	December 10th, 2012	December 10th, 2012
Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Alabama	Everglades National Park, Florida	Big Cypress National Reserve, Florida	Everglades National Park, Florida
Alligator sunning itself on the edge of a swamp	Baby alligator hiding on the edge of a swamp	Toothy alligator in shallow woody wetland	Alligator sunning itself in some lush grass

American Alligator 5	American Alligator 6	American Alligator 7	American Alligator 8
December 10th, 2012	December 10th, 2012	December 10th, 2012	December 10th, 2012
Everglades National Park, Florida	Big Cypress National Reserve, Florida	Big Cypress National Reserve, Florida	Big Cypress National Reserve, Florida
Portrait of head and upper body of alligator	Partially suberged alligator resting in swamp	Head shot of an alligator by the side of a road	Full body of an alligator by the side of a road

All photos copyrighted! Click for information on commerical usage, or usage for other personal purposes.

Use the following Google dialogue to search this South Dakota Birds and Birding site:

Custom Search

SOUTH DAKOTA BIRDS AND BIRDING - LOCATIONS OF WEBSITE VISITORS

Please mail any comments/suggestions/additional links for this page to: Terry L. Sohl