Alligators are ectotherms. In fact all reptiles are ectothermic creatures, meaning that they are cold blooded and that their bodies are unable to creature heat, so they must get that heat from another source such as the sun.
Alligators get their heat from the air, sun, water, or ground. It is the surroundings around them that helps determine how hot or cold they are. In order for an alligator to eat properly and be active it requires warmth. If an alligator gets too cold everything will begin to slow down and the animal will become lethargic. Their food will also have trouble digesting properly and their heart rates will slow down during this time, as well as their lungs.
If an alligator is cold blooded it should not be taken literally, for instance it doesn’t mean that their blood is literally “cold”, it just means that they need to regulate their body temperatures by basking in the sun, moving to warm water, and/or resting in, on, or around something that radiates some kind of heat. If an ectothermic creature gets too hot they will often seek shade or move into cooler water.
Cold blooded creatures such as the alligator are hot when their environment is hot and cold when their environment is cold. In hot environments, they can even have blood that is much warmer than that of a warm blooded animal. Cold blooded creatures are generally a lot more active in warm environments and more sluggish in cold environments. This is due to their muscle activity that depends on the chemical reactions which run quickly when it is hot and slowly when it is cold.
Alligators and other cold blooded creatures require much less energy to survive than warm blooded animals do. Mammals and birds (warm blooded creatures or endothermic) require much more food and energy than cold blooded animals of the same weight do. This is because in warm blooded creatures, heat loss from their bodies is proportional to the surface area of their bodies, while the heat created by their bodies is proportional to the surface area of their bodies; the heat created by their bodies is proportional to their mass.
The ratio of a body’s surface area to its mass is less the larger the animal is. What this means is that larger, warm blooded animals unlike the ectothermic alligator are able to generate more heat than they lose and more easily able to keep their body temperatures stable. This in turn also makes it easier for them to stay warmer if they are larger. What this also means is that if a warm blooded creature is too small it will lose its heat faster than it is able to produce it. This is where being a cold blooded creature has its advantage. For cold blooded creatures such as the alligator, they do not need to burn as much food to maintain a constant body temperature, which in turn makes them more energy efficient and able to survive for longer periods of time without food than warm blooded creatures can. Many cold blooded creatures will try to keep their body temperatures as low as possible when food is scarce.
Ectothermic creatures such as the alligator also have the advantage of being less prone to infections than warm blooded animals. This lies in the fact that being a warm blooded body provides a warm environment for viruses, bacteria and parasites to reside. As a general rule, mammals and birds since they are warm blooded, are usually prone to more problems with infections and such than reptiles, whose constantly changing body temperature make life more difficult for bacteria, etc. to survive in.
Mammals do however; still have a stronger immune system than cold blooded animals. A reptile’s immune system is more efficient when the animal is warmer, however since bacteria are known to most likely grow slower in lower temperatures, reptiles will sometimes lower their body temperatures when they have an infection.
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