One of the baby alligators on top of the model 'mother', an alligator head cast detailed by Museum Victoria's Preparators.
Image: Annie Henderson
Source: Museum Victoria
Four young American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) are currently visiting Melbourne Museum as part of the Hatching the Past exhibition. The alligators are on loan from the Australian Reptile Park in Gosford, NSW, where they were bred. Children and adults have been captivated by these youngsters as they swim around, bask under their heat lamps, and are fed by the Museum's Live Exhibits staff.
Alligators, like crocodiles, are very primitive reptiles, ideal 'living relics' to have within an exhibition which focuses on dinosaur eggs and babies. The young alligators provide visitors with an insight into how we can learn about dinosaurs through animals still living today.
Three one-year-old alligators are displayed alongside a model alligator nest, complete with model eggs, while they are watched over by their ‘mother’, another model. In the wild, young alligators live under the protection of their mother for up to two years after hatching, a behaviour which some dinosaurs may have exhibited.
A larger three year old alligator meets with visitors as part of the Live Exhibits Eggs and Babies show, which is run twice daily on weekends and school holidays. The show explains egg development and links features and behaviours of modern egg-laying animals with dinosaurs.
The alligators are given the best of care during their stay. Staff constantly monitor their enclosure temperatures, their weights, and their behaviour to ensure they are in the best of health. Although they won’t grow much during their stay, females may reach 2.5 metres in length, and males 4 metres. They are long lived with a lifespan of around 35 years in the wild, and potentially 80 years in captivity.
The alligators will return to the Australian Reptile Park in September to resume their life within educational displays.