Donna Woodruff age 10s of Tulsa Okla.

 How is an alligator s tail?

A baby alligator begins life as an egg. For two months. the egg rests with 20 or 30 brother and sister eggs in a strange nest. Mama Alligator goes to a lot of trouble to hatch her brood. First she builds a huge pile of mud mixed with old leaves. Then she places the eggs in deep and covers them up and leaves a small hole for an escape hatch.

Most reptiles desert their eggs. Not so Mama Alligator. She hovers around. snapping at any hungry racoon or skunk who might want to rob her nest. She has good hearing and knows when the little ones begin to hatch. They break out with an egg tooth ‑ a small spur on the end of the nose. The scratching sound is the signal for Mama to lend a helping hand. She pulls away the mush that covers them. one  two. three. the little fellows struggle head first out of their old shells.

Here comes Junior. He is about eight inches long. Almost two inches of him is head. complete with wide mouth. Two inches is body: including four stubby  widespread legs. And four inches of him is tail. The tail is a very important part of an alligator. Junior will soon learn to use his as an oar to propel him through the water. He will also use is as a weapons without it he could never swim. It will grow with him and develop most powerful muscles.

Junior can now waddle. The first noise he hears is Mamas grunting. She is calling her babies and they heed her. Junior joins the rest as they waddle off to Mama in her dens This den is a muddy hollow in the river bark. Junior soon learns to catch snails and frogs but he does not stay home for very long. He soon sets out to make his own way.

It is amazing. but his short legs will carry him overland for a mile or more. He finds a small shallow pool all his own. There he eats crayfish. shrimps. frogs  snails and insects. He learns to use his tail for swimming. He waves it from side to side in the water in graceful curves. He grows. and his tail grows with him.

In a year Junior is about 16 inches long. This includes an eight inch tail. In two years he is about 28 inches long, 11 inches of which is tail. If all goes wells the young fellow adds a foot to his length each year until he is ten feet long he adds six inches to his tail as he adds six inches to his body.  When he is ten feet long he adds but a few inches each year.

An alligators tail then is just about as long as his body. Aside from being necessary for his swimming  it is a powerful weapon. His jaws may not be strong enough to defeat a man  but a sideswipe from that powerful tail can fell and maybe kill a man.

Really large alligators are now rare. There was a time when plenty of them were 20 feet long. But they are hunted ruthlessly for their tough and handsome hides. Few grow bigger than six to eight feet long. So  the alligator is a vanishing American.