Bad at Goodbyes

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Chinese Alligator.

Species Information 02:05

The Chinese Alligator is a critically endangered reptile native to the Yangtze River system in the Anhui Province of southeastern China. Its scientific name is Alligator sinensis and it was first described in 1879.

Description

The Chinese Alligator is in the Crocodylia order and is one of only two remaining alligator species, along with the American Alligator. Genetic studies have determined that these species diverged roughly 33 million years ago, and ancestors of the Chinese Alligator likely crossed the Bering Straits land bridge to Asia by roughly 20 million years ago.

 

Over time, different habitat pressures led to distinctive evolutionary adaptations; for example Chinese Alligator are about half the size of American Alligator, they have armored undersides, and a shorter, more upturned snout, compared to their American cousins.

 

And of course all Alligator are distinct from modern Crocodile, that lineage diverged even earlier, about 80 million years ago. Alligator have different teeth, snout shape, skin color and habitat preference (for freshwater not saltwater), compared to Crocodile.

 

These are all, including our Chinese Alligator, an ancient, prehistoric lineage, that managed to survive the K–Pg mass extinction event 66 million years ago, the asteroid impact which wiped out three-quarters of all plant and animal species on earth, and included the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs. Crocodylia survived, and modern alligator and crocodile have retained many traits from their 240 million-year-old ancestors, their body plan has remained relatively unchanged; they are a kind of glimpse into evolutionary history.

 

The Chinese Alligator, is a small Crocodylia, adults measuring roughly 5 feet long and weighing roughly 60 pounds. Their skin is greyish blue with tan, yellow-ish markings. Their head is broad, and their snout is short and slightly upturned, sometimes giving the appearance of a kind of charming grin. Unlike crocodile, their teeth are not visible when their mouth is closed, and the teeth are blunt, adapted for crushing rather than for piercing. The eyes, nostrils, and ears are positioned on the top of their head; so they can remain almost completely submerged while still observing their surroundings.

 

Both their back (their dorsal side) and their undersides (ventral side) are armored, covered with osteoderms; these are protective bony plates embedded within the skin. Their upper eyelids are protected as well, also reinforced with bony plates.

 

Their tail is muscular, relatively thin, and long, and is roughly half their entire body length. Their legs are short, and powerful. The forefeet have five toes, three of them clawed. The hindfeet have four toes, also three clawed.

Behavior

These claws are primarily used for digging. The Chinese Alligator is fossorial, meaning it burrows. They dig elaborate underground tunnels in the sandy banks of their habitat; these are complex burrow systems reaching over 80 feet in length with multiple entrances, numerous air holes, and internal chambers large enough for the alligator to turn around in. The burrow systems include both above-ground and below-ground pools of water, creating a safe and stable microclimate where the temperature rarely drops below 50°F.

 

The Chinese Alligator brumates. This the reptile equivalent of hibernation, brumation is a state of dormancy, from roughly late October to mid-April, when the alligator remain in their burrows, and their metabolism slows down to conserve energy, relying entirely on stored fat reserves to survive the winter.

 

Chinese Alligator are ectotherms, cold-blooded, so, when they re-emerge in the Spring, their first priority is to raise their body temperature after 6 months of dormancy, spending daytime basking in the sun to warm up and normalize their metabolism. Then in early summer as temperatures rise they transition to a mainly nocturnal lifestyle, spending the daylight hours in the cool shelter of their burrows and then venturing out at night to feed.

 

The Chinese Alligator is an opportunistic carnivore, meaning it feeds on a variety of prey as it becomes available. The bulk of its diet consists of hard-shelled mollusks: freshwater snails, mussels, and clams. Its blunt teeth, adapted for crushing shells. It will supplement its diet with fish and occasionally rats and waterfowl when the opportunity arises.

 

It is an ambush predator, so instead of actively chasing down prey, which requires a lot of energy, they remain totally still, camouflaged with only eyes and nostrils above the water’s surface, and wait for prey to come within striking distance. When snails, or fish swim by, or a bird or rodent comes to the water’s edge, they quickly pounce.

 

At night, and in murky waters, the Chinese Alligator is able to sense prey using their Integumentary Sensory Organs. These are small domes on the skin of their face and jaws, that are incredibly sensitive mechanoreceptors, to detect pressure and vibration. So, faint water movement, like that made by a snail, or a fish swimming, or a small animal drinking at the shore; the Integumentary Sense Organs allows the alligator to pinpoint the location of prey without necessarily needing to see it.

 

Chinese Alligator also have specialized hearing that functions well, both under and above water. They have an external earflap, that they can open on land, or seal shut when submerged, protecting their eardrum from water pressure. Additionally they have specialized muscles and cartilage connected to their eardrum that can adjust its tension; like “tuning” their ears to better receive sound vibrations underwater, as sound moves through water differently than air.

 

Relatedly, Chinese Alligator are exceptionally vocal communicators. They “hiss”, making a defensive sound, when threatened. Young alligator “chirp”, this is a high pitched distress call to alert their mother and maintain contact with her and their siblings. This communication begins in infancy, even preceding hatching, siblings chirp from “egg to egg,” even before they emerge from their shells. Researchers have observed “mooing,” “tooting,” and “whining,” in juveniles and adults, different vocalizations used in different social interactions. And lastly, “Bellowing” which is a low frequency long distance vocalization, used especially during the mating season, alligators calling out to find one another and gather in specific ponds to mate.

Reproduction

Mating season is in June and Chinese Alligator are polygynous, meaning that a single male will attempt to mate with multiple females. Courtship behavior includes vocalizations, water splashing, and chemical cues, pheromonal release.

 

And then roughly two to three weeks after mating, female Chinese Alligator construct their nests. It’s a mound, built on land, from piled up vegetation and mud. They are big, nests can be as tall as three feet in height and are generally constructed near the female’s burrow. The mother lays a clutch of about 25 eggs in the nest, which she then covers with additional vegetation.

 

For the entire two and half month incubation period, the mother stays near the nest, defending it from predators and monitoring the eggs. Males play no role in raising the young.

 

Incubation lasts roughly until September, and as hatching approaches, young alligator begin to vocalize from within their eggs. In response, the mother excavates the nest mound, and sometimes will carefully take eggs into her mouth, applying light pressure to help crack the shell and free the hatchlings.

 

Hatchlings are tiny, roughly 8 inches in length and though they are capable of movement and feeding, the mother provides substantial protection and care. She’ll gently pick them up in her mouth and transport them from the nest to nearby water. And then remains with her young through the autumn and then often shares her burrow with her offspring for their first winter.

 

Chinese Alligator have a long juvenile period taking five to seven years to reach reproductive maturity. Chinese Alligator can live more than 70 years in captivity and more than 50 years in the wild.

In The Dream

————

In the dream,

 

To sing across the veil. Either way, really. From whatsoever is before life; or whatsoever is after,

I long to make song that permeates. A lullaby that traverses the mysteries.

 

To call through the mist, to chirp from my egg,

to reach across the chasm of existances,

to sing to my grandmother one more time.

 

In the dream.

————

Habitat

The Chinese Alligator is native to Asia, specifically the Yangtze River system in the Anhui Province in southeastern China. Their natural habitat is a slow-moving freshwater ecosystem of rivers, ponds, swamps, and marshes in low-lying hills where the soil is soft and sandy with grasses, bushes, and scattered trees.

 

But in the 20th century, that ecosystem was almost entirely lost to habitat destruction for human agricultural use. With the Chinese Alligator coexisting in an anthropogenic landscape, surviving in canals, rice paddies, irrigation networks, and drainage ditches. In a habitat fragmented by farming, residential developments, and human infrastructure.

 

Today nearly all remaining wild populations are found within the Anhui Chinese Alligator National Nature Reserve, protected land bolstered by habitat restoration programs.

 

Summer highs in this region can reach into the 90s°F and winter lows dip to right around freezing; southeastern    Anhui sees roughly 60 inches per year with most of it falling in May, June, and July.

 

The Chinese Alligator shares it habitat with:

Chinese Silvergrass, Chinese Hackberry, Swan Goose, Brown Rat, Chinese Pangolin, Field Frog, Asian Swamp Eel, Chinese Mystery Snail, Multiflora Rose, Chinaberry Tree, Japanese Bramble, Cockscomb Pearl Mussel, Corkscrew Willow, Little Egret, Dragonfly, Eurasian Harvest Mouse, Small Snakehead, White-breasted Waterhen, Kangaroo Grass, Yangtze Finless Porpoise, Korean Clover, Speargrass, Purple Bush Clover, Eastern Spot-billed Duck, Chinese Pond Mussel, Chinese Hog Badger, and many many more.

Threats

Historically, as mentioned, the wild Chinese Alligator population has been threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation. The natural wetlands of the lower Yangtze basin were transformed for agricultural use.

 

Relatedly, pesticide use affected the alligators’ waterways and in particular their prey. And historically 

farmers would actively hunt and kill the alligators, viewing them as pests that disrupted irrigation channels with their burrows and who would sometimes feed on domesticated duck.

 

Today, most of these risks persist. Overall habitat loss continues to be an overarching threat to the remaining Chinese Alligator population and even though illegal, direct killing of individuals has not been completely stopped.

 

Human induced climate change is a looming threat. Altered weather patterns may result in floods, which can sweep away nests and eggs and drought, which may dry up waterways and the alligators food supply.

Conservation

Fortunately, decades of conservation effort have been focused on the Chinese Alligator.

 

Since the 1970s, the Chinese Alligator has been legally protected in China and in 1982, the Chinese government established the Anhui Chinese Alligator National Nature Reserve to preserve the alligator and its remaining wild population. Since then public education programs and outreach to regional farmers has significantly reduced the hunting and killing of the species.

 

And today habitat restoration programs are in process, including a re-establishment and re-introduction program at the Chongming Dongtan Wetland Park in Shanghai, where captive-bred Chinese Alligators were released into a newly restored wetland habitat and successfully mated, nested, and hatched offspring.

 

There are extensive active offsite captive breeding programs, in the US, like at the Bronx Zoo, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, and the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge. And of course in China, particularly at the Anhui Research Center for Chinese Alligator Reproduction which began with a group of 200 wild-caught alligators, and has successfully bred that captive population to over 15,000 individuals. And as of 2021, roughly 1000 of whom have been successfully re-introduced into the wild.

 

Nevertheless the Chinese Alligator has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1996 and though bolstered by committed conservation and captive breeding efforts, overall their population is in decline.

 

Our most recent counts estimate that less than 1400 Chinese Alligator remain in the wild.

Citations 29:21

Information for today’s show about the Chinese Alligator was compiled from:

 

Groppi, L. 2006. “Alligator sinensis” (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. – https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Alligator_sinensis/

 

Jiang, H.-X. & Wu, X. 2018. Alligator sinensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T867A3146005. -  https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T867A3146005.en

 

Kabir, Ashraful. Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis) (Fauvel, 1879) (Reptilia: Alligatoridae): Captive Breeding as Well as its Rehabilitation. International Journal of Research Studies in Zoology. Volume 8, Issue 2, 2024, PP 5-8. – https://doi.org/10.20431/2454-941X.0802002

 

Thorbjarnarson, John, and Wang Xiaoming. “The Conservation Status of the Chinese Alligator.” Oryx 33, no. 2 (1999): 152–59. – https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3008.1999.00051.x

 

Lau, Erika Y. X., Josh A. Hodge, Jonathan P. Rio, Tao Pan, Philip D. Mannion, and Samuel T. Turvey. “Using Local Ecological Knowledge to Identify Land-Use Threats to the Last Wild Population of the Chinese Alligator Alligator Sinensis.” Oryx, 21 February 2025, 1–10. – https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605324000978

 

Liu, V. H. (2013). Chinese Alligators: Observations at Changxing Nature Reserve & Breeding Center. Reptiles & Amphibians, 20(4), 172-183. – https://doi.org/10.17161/randa.v20i4.13965

 

Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. (n.d.). Chinese alligator. – https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/chinese-alligator

 

Sun, K., Li, M., Wang, Z., Sun, S., Yang, J., Wu, X., & Pan, T. (2025). Habitat Integrity Challenges for the Chinese Alligator Amid Land Occupation by Human: Pathways for Protection. Ecology and Evolution, 15 (3), e71113. – https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71113

 

Thorbjarnarson, John & Wang, Xiaoming & He, Lijun. (2001). Reproductive Ecology of the Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis) and Implications for Conservation. Journal of Herpetology. 35 (4). 553. – https://doi.org/10.2307/1565892

 

Xianyan Wang, Ding Wang, Xiaobing Wu, Renping Wang, Chaolin Wang. 1 May 2007. Acoustic signals of Chinese alligators (Alligator sinensis): Social communication. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 121 (5): 2984–2989. – https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2714910

 

Yang, H. & Zhao, Lan & Han, Qun-Hua & Fang, S.. (2017). Nest site preference and fidelity of chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis). Asian Herpetological Research. 8. 244-252. – https://doi.org/10.16373/j.cnki.ahr.170066

 

Encyclopedia Britannica – https://www.britannica.com/animal/Chinese-alligator

 

For more information about Chinese Alligator conservation, see the IUCN-SSC Crocodile Specialist Group at https://www.iucncsg.org.

Music 31:12

Pledge 38:25

I honor the lifeforce of the Chinese Alligator. I will commit its name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.

 

And so, in the name of the Chinese Alligator I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

 

I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.