Kids like alligators. If you take them to a zoo, they’ll likely get fascinated by these land and water creatures. They want to know all about how they can survive in water and stay fresh on land. This is why alligator coloring pages can be so much fun for them. While it’s very easy for you and your kids to confuse alligators with crocodiles, you should know that they are very different animals. In fact, they don’t even look the same when you get up close. If you want to learn more about what makes alligators special to add to your coloring pages collection, you should keep on reading.
Welcome to our collection of free ALLIGATOR coloring pages. Click the Alligator pictures or illustrations you like and you’ll be taken to the PDF download and/or print page. Every Alligator coloring page is a printable PDF and/or can be downloaded.
All You Need to Know About Alligators
Types of Alligators
Did you know that there are two different types of alligators in the whole world? Yes, that’s right, only two types exist. These can be differentiated according to their behavioral patterns, their size, and weight. Even though they’re both a species of reptiles with the same snout that’s black in color, they are different in certain aspects. The following are the different types of alligators that you can find.
1. American Alligators
This type of alligator is the largest of the two. They can almost reach 12 feet in length. In addition, they can end up weighing around 1000lbs. You can find these types of alligators predominantly in the southern states of the country. If you travel along North Carolina towards Texas, you should come across a couple of these types. You should look at any slow moving ponds, swamps, or rivers. These are the areas where they mostly populate.
2. Chinese Alligators
These types of alligators are much smaller in size when you compare them with your American types. Their maximum size is nothing that’s more than 5 feet in length. And they also don’t exceed 50lbs in their weight. If you ever find yourself visiting the river basin of the Yangtze River in China that’s located near the Pacific Ocean. You’d be surprised to find that these alligators are usually confined in ditches and ponds. Or in areas where you grow food. However, you can still find them to be mostly populated in lakes, rivers, and swamps.
If you find them in a confined area it’s because the area where they used to live has likely been converted into rice growing paddies.
What’s Interesting About Alligators?
Did you know that you have a good chance of bumping into the alligator while it’s basking in the sun? The reason behind this is that they’re cold-blooded animals. This means that they can’t keep themselves warm. Yet, when the sun gets too much for them, they simply dip themselves in water to cool down. There are other interesting things that you should know about alligators before you start coloring away. These can be summarized as follows.
- They live in congregations or in groups because they are very social reptiles.
- Most of their hunting for food is done underwater because they’re excellent swimmers.
- They are not picky eaters. So, they eat just about anything that you give them.
- Even though they can live on land, they are very clumsy. Unlike when they’re I’m the water.
- Female alligators lay their eggs on land instead of in the water. To protect them, they cover the eggs with dirt and sand.
- The temperature of the eggs determines if it will be a boy or a girl.
- When you’re a tourist who feeds alligators, you make them to lose fear of humans. This is why they end up attacking small kids and even pets.