Species profile
Alligator mississippiensis
American alligator
LC · Least Concern — Least Concern — low risk, widespread and abundant
About this species
American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is part of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue and is classified as Least Concern. The sex of alligator hatchlings is decided by nest temperature, not genes — cool nests make females, warm nests make males. Its recorded population direction is stable, although that summary can combine local populations following different trajectories.
Habitat, behaviour and ecological role
This profile associates the species with freshwater, wetland. These labels summarise environments used during different stages of its life rather than drawing an exact range boundary. Alligators shared North America with dinosaurs and survived the asteroid impact that ended them; today they outnumber people in parts of Florida. Its anatomy and behaviour are responses to those environments, while movement can connect distant places requiring different forms of management.
Why this species is at risk
Mother alligators guard their nests for months and carry hatchlings to water in their jaws — among the most attentive parents of any reptile. The catalogue records 2 principal pressures for this profile: Wetland loss, Historic overhunting. They should not be treated as isolated causes. Habitat change, exploitation, pollution, disease and climate stress can reinforce one another, while the importance of each pressure varies between regions and through time.
Conservation outlook
Protecting and reconnecting habitat is a priority, together with infrastructure planning that keeps feeding, breeding or migration routes functional. Direct protection needs to combine enforcement with conflict prevention, demand reduction and local benefits that make coexistence viable. Actions need long-term monitoring and revision as evidence changes; a positive intervention in one place does not by itself represent recovery across the species.
Editorial review: 2026-08-21
Threat factors
Known occurrences
Dots are georeferenced occurrence records from OBIS (marine) and GBIF (global), not individual animals and not a complete range map. Up to 500 recent API results are cached; the profile renders at most 500 points.
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