#Reptile

What They Eat

Juveniles eat chiefly insects, small crustaceans, tadpoles, and small fish. With age they become omnivores that favor plants such as duckweed and submerged vegetation. Field studies report wide site to site ranges in plant versus animal intake, but the overall trend is juvenile leaning carnivory to adult leaning herbivory.

Why it Changes

Early growth is faster on animal diets that are protein and energy dense, which supports rapid size gains that reduce predation risk. Plant foods require microbial fermentation to extract energy, which takes longer and can limit intake rate in small turtles. As body size and gut volume increase, fermentation becomes more effective and adults can meet their needs with vegetation while still taking opportunistic animal prey.

Diet composition also tracks local prey and plant supply, water temperature, and season, and can differ by sex. Some populations show mostly plant material in adult stomachs while others retain substantial animal intake. The consistent signal is the ontogenetic trend from juvenile carnivory to adult herbivory.

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Sources

• Bouchard SS, Bjorndal KA. 2006
• Bouchard SS, Bjorndal KA. 2005
• McCauley SJ, Bjorndal KA. 1999
• Animal Diversity Web

Alligators are masters of stealth, and their eye placement plays a critical role.

With eyes set high on their heads, they can float nearly motionless at the water’s surface while watching everything around them and staying almost invisible.

Their vertical pupils give them excellent night vision, making them especially effective ambush predators during dawn, dusk, or even under moonlight.

The green tree python spends most of its life high in the forest canopy, perfectly adapted for an arboreal lifestyle.

It coils itself over branches in a classic saddle position, allowing it to stay hidden while keeping its muscles ready to strike. From this perch, the snake waits patiently for birds, lizards, or small mammals to pass by. When prey comes within range, it launches a lightning-fast strike and uses its sharp, backward-facing teeth to grab and hold before constricting.

This ambush strategy is highly effective in the dense, shaded treetops where movement is limited and cover is plentiful.

The sex of a baby alligator is not determined by genetics but by the temperature of the nest during incubation. If the temperature stays around 90 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit, most of the hatchlings will be male.

Cooler temperatures, around 82 to 86 degrees, produce mostly females. Even a slight change of just a few degrees can alter the ratio, sometimes resulting in mixed groups of males and females.

This temperature-dependent sex determination is common in many reptiles and makes alligator populations sensitive to climate shifts.