Will Alligators And Crocodiles Mate

If you've ever watched any nature documentary you'll likely know that the animal world is full of wild and impressively complex mating rituals. Great Blue Heron mating habits, for example, involve elaborate courtship rituals, while whale mating includes the use of throaty vocalizations on the part of the males. Then, there are the frankly disturbing mating habits of chimpanzees which often involve males using coercive force.

But nothing is quite like the way in which alligators mate. These reptiles also use vocalizations to attract one another before nothing short of a spectacle takes place, whereby the creatures engage in the alligator equivalent of a wrestling match before a very brief copulation that lasts all of 30 seconds. It doesn't sound like the most enjoyable experience, does it? Well, crocodiles engage in similar behavior, with males slapping their heads and tails against the water's surface and bellowing in order to attract a female.

With similar mating rituals alongside the obvious physical similarities it may seem as though these two giant reptile species could interbreed and produce hybrids. Alas, a crocogator simply isn't possible due to a list of issues including genetic, behavioral, and physical differences.

If lions and tigers can breed and produce ligers and tigons, then surely alligators and crocodiles can do the same? Oddly enough, that isn't the case. The species are often mistaken for one another due to the fact they share multiple physical similarities like elongated snouts, thick scaly skin, and long tails. But while there are many similarities between alligators and crocodiles, there are also some very important differences, some of which make it impossible for the two species to breed.

Aside from the fact that alligators live only in freshwater and crocodiles live in both fresh and saltwater, making the survival of a hybrid questionable, there's the fact that these two creatures are too genetically distinct to allow for successful mating. Crocodiles and alligators both belong to the group known as crocodilians, which also includes caimans and gharials. But while they share a common ancestor, the two animals' evolutionary journeys diverged around 80 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period. This means the gators and crocs aren't just separated by physical differences such as different shaped snouts — they also differ genetically.

To be clear, alligators and crocodiles are actually around 93% similar genetically, but while that might seem as though they're close to identical, consider that we humans share a 93% genetic similarity to macaques and a 99% similarity with chimpanzee. Just as a human–chimpanzee hybrid isn't possible, there simply isn't enough genetic similarity between crocodiles and alligators for them to successfully breed. How, then, are lions and tigers — which arguably look much less similar than alligators and crocodiles — able to mate? The answer is that they share enough genetic similarities. Even though they are thought to be 95% similar genetically, they both belong to the Panthera genus whereas crocodiles and alligators belong to two separate genera: Crocodylus and Alligatoridae.

It's not just the raw genetic differences that prevent crocodiles and alligators from interbreeding. On a broader level, the two species have different numbers of chromosomes. The chromosome number in the Alligatoridae family is more varied than in Crocodylidae which makes breeding impossible. In order for two animals to reproduce successfully, each parent requires an even number of chromosomes so that each chromosome has a partner. Odd numbers of chromosomes or mismatched pieces will result in problems with cell division and ultimately birth defects or a completely unviable embryo. With alligators and crocodiles, the number of chromosomes differs, which makes reproduction extremely difficult on its own, and impossible when combined with the species' genetic differences.

There are several other reasons why mating between crocodiles and alligators wouldn't work. Behavioral differences between the species mean that the mating process itself would be extremely difficult, not to mention the fact that crocodiles and alligators typically occupy different habitats (there's only one region where you'll find crocs and gators together in the United States). As such, not only are they very unlikely to ever encounter one another, if they were able to produce offspring, the question of whether it could survive in a given habitat would make its longevity questionable. While there have been anecdotal reports of alligator–crocodile hybrids which have cropped up from time to time, thus far there have been no officially verified examples.