Alligator Mating - For better or for worse

Alligator mating is faithful a new study says (click to enlarge)

Range of American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)

Parental Care: American Alligator mother and young Photo: Kolossos

The team, led by Travis Glenn, Ruth Elsey, Tracey Tuberville and Stacey Lance, spent a decade examining the mating system of alligators living in the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries' Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge (RWR) in Louisiana. Once they had successfully re-trapped a female they saw the potential to examine individual behavior over multiple mating seasons and determine if mate fidelity or pair bonding occurs.

"Given how incredibly open and dense the alligator population is at RWR we didn't expect to find fidelity," said Lance. "To actually find that 70% of our re-trapped females showed mate fidelity was really incredible. I don't think any of us expected that the same pair of alligators that bred together in 1997 would still be breeding together in 2005 and may still be producing nests together to this day."

This new discovery provides new insight into the mating system of the alligator. Parental care is typically lacking in reptiles, but not in crocodilians, who nurture their young and defend the nest.

While the females at RWR move freely through male territories, leading to high mate encounter rates, this study reveals that many alligators choose to tie the knot and mate with the same partner over many mating seasons. This amounts to the first evidence for partial mate fidelity in a crocodilian and reveals a similarity in mating patterns between alligators and birds.

"In this study, by combining molecular techniques with field studies we were able to figure something out about a species that we never would have known otherwise," concludes Lance. "Hopefully future studies will also lead to some unexpected and equally fascinating results."

In the meantime, we can can expect all those loving crocodilian couples to remain tender and true.