Alligator Mating

For better or for worse

True love: Alligator mating is faithful a new study says

Range of American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)

The ten-year study by scientists from the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory in South Carolina reveals that up to 70% of females chose to remain with their partner, often for many years.

The team, led by Travis Glenn, Ruth Elsey, Tracey Tuberville and Stacey Lance, studied mating fidelity in alligators living in the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries' Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge (RWR) in Louisiana.

"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 insight into the mating system of the alligator. It's 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.