Top 10 Alligator Gar Characteristics that Have Helped it Survive

Alligator Garfish is a rare and little-known species has claws in its mouth. The species which usually lives in rivers and lakes has its teeth and jaws so protruding that it looks more alligator than fish. The alligator gar, in Portuguese something like the crocodile, is an exotic animal normally found in the north of the state of Florida, in the USA.

Alligator Gar is often referred to as “Living Fossils” or “Primitive Fishes”. It is because it has retained some characteristics of its earliest ancestors like a spiral valve.

One of the most striking things in the Alligator Garfish is the fact that it is one of the largest specimens endowed with “claws” in the mouth. There are records of fish weighing around 100 kilos, the record holder weighing an impressive 126 kilos.

As for size, they can reach an average of 2.70 meters. Another feature that distinguishes the alligator is the presence of two rows of teeth in the upper jaw. With all these curiosities the feeding of the fish could not be different eats other species of fish but can also get to hunt ducks and other birds that live in rivers and lakes.

Alligator Gar can be found in the southeastern United States: Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Illinois, in the Twin Lakes area,

Here are top 10 Alligator Gar Characteristics that have helped it survive:

(1) This fish has an elongated snout, the lower jaw being shorter than the upper one. It is large in size, reaching 280 cm in length in males and a weight of 200 kg.

(2) In look, it seems slow but they ambush their prey at great speed. Its body is torpedo-shaped and usually olive or brown fading to a yellow or light gray ventral surface.

(3) Alligator Gar is a relatively large genus. They are elongated fish ranging from 50cm to 4m long.

(4) Their scales form a sort of armor, protecting them from other predators.

(5) They are also sharp. They never brush a garfish counter-scales, Native Americans used their scales to make their arrowheads. The alligator fish is an elongated fish, with a long, narrow snout.

(6) These fish have the modified swim bladder gas bladder. It allows them to breathe on the surface because these fish live in troubled waters and sometimes, very little oxygen.

(7) It is by coming to breathe on the surface that it creates a great eddy which betrays its presence to sinners who want to catch this type of trophy fish, some varieties up to 4 meters long.

(8) The Alligator Garfish has a reputation as a human killer.

(9) The Alligator Gar is a predator. It eats only what it can swallow, even if it is aggressive, it will never bite your hand and arm.

(10) Alligator Garfish is known to devour anything they can get between their jaws. A new study has added two more entries to their menu: sharks and stingrays.

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