Category: Reptiles
This large reptile can reach lengths of 15 feet and a weight of almost 1000 pounds! They inhabit freshwater wetlands throughout the southeastern United States, with Louisiana and Florida boasting the highest numbers of wild American alligators. The holes they dig in their wetland environments form important habitat and sources of fresh water for other organisms.
http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/amphibians-reptiles-and-fish/american-alligator.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_alligator
Here’s blood in your eye!
Horned lizards utilize a few tried-and-true ways of avoiding predators: like many other animals, they blend in with their surroundings and can puff themselves up to look larger and more threatening. But what they are best known for is a particularly messy hail-Mary play, where they startle and confuse predators by squiring blood out of their eyes! To accomplish this, the horned lizard increases the blood pressure in its head, rupturing the vessels in its eyelid, at which point a stream of blood, carefully aimed and up to 5 feet in length squirts the offending predator. The horned lizard’s blood is particularly foul to canine and feline (possibly due to the high quantity of venomous harvester ants in its diet), and should provide just enough of a diversion (or aversion!) for the lizard to scurry away and survive another day!
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