Florida alligators

03Alligator and crocodile

FWC’s species profile gives the field marks. An alligator has a broad, rounded snout. When the jaw is closed, the lower teeth stay out of sight. Adult alligators are dark gray with a lighter underside. Juveniles have light stripes along the sides. A green cast is often algae on the skin.

An American crocodile has a narrower snout. The fourth tooth on each side of the lower jaw protrudes when the mouth is closed. Crocodiles are brownish gray and generally paler. They live mainly in the brackish and saltwater mangroves of south Florida. Killing or harassing a crocodile is illegal. FWC points people to MyFWC.com/Crocodile, and the same warning is on the Statewide Alligator Program Super Hunt page.

04How big

FWC says females rarely exceed 10 feet, and males grow larger. The state record for length is a male of 14 feet 3 and a half inches, from Lake Washington in Brevard County. The weight record is 1,043 pounds, a male of 13 feet 10 and a half inches, from Orange Lake in Alachua County.

The National Park Service, writing about the Everglades, says adult males occasionally reach 13 to 15 feet and females reach about 10 feet, and that both sexes tend to be smaller in South Florida. Both descriptions stay on this page because both offices published them.

FWC’s hunt tips give a rough length estimate, and it is only an estimate. The inches between the bump on the snout and the eye are roughly the feet of total length. A gap of 4 inches or more between the eyes, when those eyes face a light, often means an adult. Estimating from a bank is a looking skill. Walking up to measure is a different act.

05Water, holes, and a keystone

Everglades National Park describes alligators in swamps, marshes, rivers, lakes, and smaller waters. In the dry season they dig alligator holes. Those holes hold water after the marsh around them dries. Other wildlife uses that water. The park calls the alligator a keystone species for that reason. Nesting also builds peat. Florida red-bellied turtles incubate eggs in active alligator nests and in abandoned ones.

A useful visit is a boardwalk or a marked overlook. Watch how open water, bank, and plants sit together. Notice whether the animal is in the water or on the bank, and whether the marsh is wet or drying. That is the observation. Closing the distance is a separate choice, and the safety section below is the one to use.

Heat, winter, and a still animal

Alligators are ectothermic. They take their heat from the world around them. FWC says they are most active between 82 and 92 degrees Fahrenheit, stop feeding below about 70 degrees, and are dormant below 55 degrees. In winter they use dens or burrows next to an alligator hole or open water, and they still bask on warm days. The National Park Service says foraging ceases below about 68 to 73 degrees. Basking is temperature work. A still animal on a bank is awake enough to be left alone.

What they eat

Diet follows size. FWC says juveniles eat insects, amphibians, small fish, and other invertebrates. Adults eat rough fish, snakes, turtles, small mammals, and birds. They are opportunistic. The park service adds reptiles, including small alligators. A motionless alligator at the edge of the water may be waiting. That is a reason to keep human food, fish scraps, and pet food out of the picture. Feeding is illegal, and it teaches the animal that people are a food stop.

06Nests, eggs, and young

Three public pages describe incubation, and they do not use the same day count. All three stay here, with the office that printed them.

FWC’s species profile: courtship begins in early April, mating is in May or June, the female builds a mound nest, and she lays about 32 to 46 eggs in late June or early July. Incubation is about 60 to 65 days. Hatchlings arrive in late August or early September. Nearly all alligators are sexually mature by about 7 feet. Females can mature at 6 feet. Females mature at about 10 to 15 years, males at about 8 to 12 years. From an average clutch of 35, an estimated 4 reach maturity in a growing population.

FWC’s facts page: the average clutch is 32 to 46 eggs, incubation is about 63 to 68 days, and hatching runs from mid-August through early September. In the survival section of that material, about one third of nests are destroyed by predators, mainly raccoons, or by flooding. An average clutch of 38 yields about 24 live hatchlings if the nest survives. About 10 live to one year. About 8 become subadults at 4 feet. About 5 reach maturity at 6 feet. Eggs are also crushed by the female. Hogs, otters, and bears are reported at nests. Juveniles are eaten by raccoons, otters, wading birds, fish, and larger alligators. Adult deaths include cannibalism, fighting, and human hunting.

The National Park Service Everglades page, updated March 7, 2025: average incubation is 58 to 63 days. Nests are about 3 and a half feet high and twice as wide. Flooding kills most eggs within 12 hours. Sex follows incubation temperature. About 90 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit produces males. About 82 to 86 degrees produces females. Temperatures in between produce a mix. The female opens the nest when she hears the young, and she carries about 8 to 10 hatchlings at a time in her mouth to the water. Pods from different nests may mix. Young stay with the mother typically one year, and sometimes two or three. Growth in the first four years is sometimes more than a foot a year.

A small alligator is a reason to give the bank more room. The mother is often still nearby. This page describes nesting in general. It does not send anyone to a nest.

07Distance, swimming, and food

FWC’s living-with guidance is short because the behavior is simple. Keep a safe distance. Keep pets on a leash and back from the water’s edge. Pets often look like natural prey. Swim only in designated swimming areas, during daylight, and leave the pet out of that swim. Alligators are most active from dusk to dawn. Never feed them. Feeding is illegal and dangerous.

The National Park Service says most attacks on people are tied to illegal feeding, and that feeding or provoking alligators and other wildlife is illegal. The agency pages used for this guide do not print a fixed number of feet as a statewide standoff distance. “Safe distance” is the phrase they use. When the animal feels close, add space and leave on the path you came in on.

A bite or a scratch, even a small one, can cause a serious infection. Get medical care right away. If a person is hurt, call 911 for the person, then 866-392-4286 for the animal.

08Children and pets

Decide the standing place before anyone leans over the bank. Children stay with an adult, on the visitor side of a rail or a mowed edge. Zoom on a camera does the work that footsteps would do. Leave a clear path back to the car or the trail.

FWC’s pet guidance uses a non-retractable leash of 6 feet or less, especially at dusk, dawn, and night. Dogs and cats stay out of the water’s edge. They do not swim in fresh or brackish water. Pet food does not sit outside unattended. A dog is not chained where food is. Those habits match the way an alligator hunts: low, at the edge, at the hours when people are tired and pets are off a routine.

A child’s ball in the water is a retrieval problem for an adult with a tool, from a distance, or it is a lost ball. Wading in after it puts a person in the hunting lane. The same is true of a dog toy.

10Who picks up the phone

SNAP’s first job is public safety. The aim is to deal with threats in developed areas and to keep alligators where they naturally live. The statewide number is 866-FWC-GATOR, which is 866-392-4286. When a call qualifies, FWC sends a contracted nuisance-alligator trapper.

Have the place ready when you call: the address or the park name, the kind of water, about how long the animal looked, what it is doing, and whether people or pets are close. If you can see it from a safe spot, stay there until you are told otherwise. Chasing it back into the water, or into a neighbor’s yard, changes the call.

Wildlife Alert is the other number

Wildlife Alert is 888-404-FWCC, which is 888-404-3922. From a cell phone, #FWC reaches the same kind of report. The online form is on FWC’s Wildlife Alert page. Call or file as soon as you can. Useful details are the location, what people did, vehicles, and tag numbers.

If a tip leads to an arrest or a citation, a reward of up to $1,000 may be available. The reward schedule is separate from the criminal fine. On that schedule, Level One examples include hunting, fishing, or trapping without a license, and the listed reward is $100. Level Two includes feeding or enticement of alligators or crocodiles, and the listed reward is $300. Those dollar figures are rewards for information. They are not the penalty imposed on the person who broke the rule.

A pond alligator that concerns you is the nuisance line. A person tossing food, or a person killing an alligator outside the permit rules, is Wildlife Alert.

Signs you can post

The SNAP page links “Don’t Feed” and “Be Alert” signs as PDFs, and it links an alligator brochure. The brochure address is on the source list. A sign is a reminder for guests. It does not replace the phone call when an animal is already in a pool or on a porch.

11Protection, and what still threatens them

The National Park Service notes that the American alligator was listed as endangered in 1967 under the law that came before the Endangered Species Act, and that it was removed from the endangered list in 1987. FWC’s facts page explains the status that followed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the alligator for its similarity of appearance to a threatened animal, the American crocodile. Florida adopted that listing. Alligators may be taken legally only with the licenses and permits the Commission requires.

FWC names wetland destruction as the main threat. The management goal on the facts page is the long-term well-being of the population and the benefits that population gives people. Regulated hunting sits inside that goal. An unpermitted kill sits outside it, under section 379.409, which is in the law section below.

FWC also publishes a children’s education page on alligators, a Private Lands Alligator Program, and an alligator farming program. This guide names them and sends you to FWC for the current rules of each one. The farming license fee that appears in statute is covered with section 379.3751 below, because that dollar amount is printed in the statute itself.

13The statutes, as printed

Section 379.409 makes it illegal to intentionally kill, injure, possess, or capture an alligator or other crocodilian, or their eggs, or to attempt those acts, unless Commission rules authorize it. Equipment used in the offense may be confiscated on conviction. A violation is a Level Four violation under section 379.401. Section 379.401 says a Level Four violation is a third-degree felony, punishable as provided in sections 775.082, 775.083, or 775.084. This page does not add a prison term or a dollar fine on top of that cross-reference. The statute pages below are the text.

Section 379.412 prints its own ladder. A first violation is a noncriminal infraction with a civil penalty of $100. A second alligator or crocodilian-related violation is a second-degree misdemeanor. A third is a first-degree misdemeanor. A fourth or later violation is a third-degree felony. This page does not invent jail days for those steps. Leaving scraps where an animal can find them is a reason to stop and to read 379.412. It is not, by itself, a statement that a particular scrap pile is already the $100 infraction. The statute and the facts of the place do that work.

Section 379.3751 requires the alligator license before a person takes or possesses an alligator or eggs. The license is valid for 12 months. The statute sets the annual fee for a farming license at $250. That figure is the farming-license fee in the statute. A person convicted under 379.3015 or 379.409, or for an illegal crocodilian take, cannot be issued a license for 5 years, or for 10 years if an endangered crocodilian was taken. Violating 379.3751 is a Level Two violation under 379.401.

A longer laws page on this site stays in this window: Florida laws.