🐊 American Alligator
Alligator mississippiensis
Bull alligators bellow so deeply that the water above their backs dances. It is one of the strangest sounds in North America.
🔊 Hear the call
🐊 American Alligator
Reference call (simulated)
“A deep, rumbling bellow like distant thunder or a revving engine”
What they sound like
A deep, rumbling bellow like distant thunder or a revving engine
Why they make this sound
- · Males bellowing to advertise size during spring courtship
- · Females answering nearby bellows
- · Hatchlings making high grunts to call their mother
When you’ll hear them
April–June courtship season, mostly at dawn and dusk
Where they live
Freshwater marshes, swamps, canals, lakes and golf course ponds Southeastern United States, especially Florida and Louisiana
Fun fact
Part of a bellow is infrasound you feel rather than hear — it makes water droplets leap off their backs.
Should I be concerned?
Keep a wide distance, never swim at dawn or dusk in gator water, keep pets leashed and away from banks, and never ever feed one.
Sound signature
- Sound type
- Reptile vocalization — bellow
- Pitch
- Very low with infrasound below hearing
- Pattern
- Long rumble repeated in bouts
- Frequency
- 10–200 Hz