Your Extensive Guide to Reptiles

Let's travel to Florida to meet one of the largest of reptiles, the alligator. Alligators live only in the southeastern states of our country, like Louisiana and Florida. Most of the time alligators are pictured in swamps, but many people in Florida have reported seeing alligators in the lakes near their backyards. Having a reptile the size of a lizard in the backyard is normal, but seeing an alligator in a pond is something to get excited about. For such a big reptile, you might be surprised to find that it often isn't easy to spot an alligator in the water.

Alligators like to float just beneath the surface of the water, with only their eyes and nostrils breaking the surface of the water. The rest of their big body just relaxes underneath the water, legs spread apart and the huge tail hanging partway down. The alligator can float at exactly the right level by using his lungs as a kind of inflatable raft, and keeps just the right amount of air for only his eyes to stay above the water. An alligator stays mostly under water for one of two reasons.

The first reason is to keep his body temperature cool. Like other reptiles, the alligator's body temperature depends upon the temperature of the air or water around him. The sun can get very hot in Florida, and since the alligator does not sweat, there has to be another way for him to keep cool. He first opens his enormous mouth, and that will cool him down a little bit. If the alligator is still too hot, he will go into the water to lower his body temperature even more.

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