Animal Diaries Archive

Gator growth spurt!

25 April 2008

Our first ever American Alligators to hatch at Australia Zoo are now six years old. And after a huge growth spurt over summer they are definitely looking their age!

At the beginning of summer approximately six months ago the average weight of our six alligators used for conditioning was around ten kilograms. After summer their weights are around the sixteen kilogram mark, with good-old Brutis weighing in at eighteen kilograms.

Their rapid growth is very noticeable and they are becoming increasingly large gators to handle. We still take one of the six gators out daily to interact with zoo visitors. As the gators grow our conditioning methods have to change accordingly. It now takes two keepers to get the gators in and out of their enclosure. Once they are able to be put down on the grass and allowed to walk around on the grass and sit and relax it only takes one keeper to handle them.

Until next summer!