Two baby alligators from a Florida facility are being cared for temporarily at the Erie Zoo.
In early August, the Erie Zoo at 423 W. 38th St. introduced two three-month-old baby American alligators, Roz and Randall. Both given names from the Disney and Pixar movie “Monsters, Inc.”
The gators measure between four to six inches, and their sex has not been determined due to their young age.
These gators come from a facility in central Florida on loan, so they won’t be at the zoo permanently.
“They’ll be here for three or four years,” said Scott Mitchell, director of development for the Erie Zoo. “They take time to grow and then once they do, they head back to Florida and we get a couple of new little ones.”
Mitchell says that the zoo has taken in baby alligators from Florida several times in the past and it has worked well with both parties.
“As they get larger they get significantly more challenging to handle,” Mitchell said. “Once they get around 3 feet they become a handful.”
In three to four years, the alligators will be returned to Florida and the zoo will receive new baby gators to begin the process again.
Where are the new alligators at the Erie Zoo?
Both alligators just finished a 90-day quarantine and can now be used for educational classes, meet and greets, outreach programs and other events at the zoo.
The new gators will not have an exhibit at the zoo for the public to view daily. They will only be seen in public during the zoo events.
“Right now they are in what used to be the otters holding facility,” Mitchell said. “Now that the otters have a new exhibit, that space is being utilized for a holding area.”
Fun facts about the baby alligators
Mitchell was able to share a few facts about the three-month-old alligators.
- They have 80 teeth, which they lose constantly and go through hundreds in their lifetime;
- They currently have a diet of insects and tadpoles;
- The have a nictating membrane which allows them to keep their eyes open under water.
And although it’s hard to see, alligators do blink, according to thereptileroom.net. They have eyes similar to humans and need to keep them moist to function properly.
The Reptile Room website states that, “some alligators will blink just by closing their inner eyelids, and sometimes they close inner and outer eyelids.”
