MOBILE, Ala. — A large alligator recently filmed swimming across the lake at Mobile’s Municipal Park is a sure sign of the time of year: alligator mating season, which runs from April through May in Alabama according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR).
How the season works
Breeding takes place in open water. Afterward, females build nests from plants and mud and lay between 30 and 70 eggs. The eggs hatch after about nine weeks, and the young stay with their mother for roughly 18 months. Alligators grow quickly early in life, adding about a foot of length each year for their first four years.
Adult gators are ambush hunters that feed mostly at night, seizing prey in powerful jaws before drowning it and swallowing it whole. During the warm months — including mating season — an adult alligator eats around 20 pounds of food every week.
Living alongside gators
Coexistence with alligators is part of everyday life in south Alabama, and because the animals are naturally shy around people, bites are rare. That balance was once at risk: unregulated harvest across the South in the early 1900s pushed the species toward extinction, according to the ADCNR, before conservation measures allowed populations to recover.
As a top predator in the state’s wetlands, the alligator helps keep other animal populations in balance. But as development spreads into gator habitat, encounters between people and alligators become more likely.
Safety tips
The ADCNR notes that alligators favor permanent water — freshwater swamps, marshes, rivers, lakes and streams that don’t dry up in summer — the same places people flock as weather warms. Residents are encouraged to follow the department’s safety guidance when outdoors this spring and summer.
To report a nuisance alligator, contact your regional wildlife office through the ADCNR’s website.