Alligator

Appearance:

Female alligators rarely exceed 9 feet in length, but males can grow much larger. The Florida state record for length is a 14 foot 3-1/2 inch male from Lake Washington in Brevard County. The Florida record for weight is a 1,043 pound (13 feet 10-1/2 inches long) male from Orange Lake in Alachua County.
The tell-tale eye-shine of an alligator (and other nocturnal vertebrates) is caused by a layer of cells called the tapetum lucidum (a Latin phrase meaning "bright carpet"). This structure is located beneath the photoreceptor cells (rods and cones) in the retina and reflects light back into these cells to increase the amount of light detected, which improves an alligator's vision in low light conditions. In alligators this eye-shine is red, but it can be different colors in other species. For more information, see the documents at the links below.

Habitat:

Alligators occur from southeast Oklahoma and east Texas on the western side of their range to North Carolina and Florida in the east. They prefer fresh water lakes and slow-moving rivers and their associated wetlands, but they also can be found in brackish water habitats.