E290: See You Later Alligator

Fresh Hell Podcast

freshhellpodcast

True Crime

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we’re trading murder for mayhem of the ancient reptilian variety. We take a deep dive into the world of crocodilians—those prehistoric apex predators that have been lurking in rivers, swamps, and sometimes swimming pools for millions of years. From the surprisingly gentle Chinese alligator to the misunderstood American alligator and the unexpectedly terrifying black caiman, we explore the biology, behavior, and long history of these armored giants. You'll learn about death rolls, gator holes, cloacal logistics, and even virgin births. Yes, really. Plus: sewer gator myths, historical attacks, and why crocodilians might just be the ultimate survivors. If you thought you knew gators, you don’t know the half of it.

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alligator, crocodile, caiman, black caiman, gharial, false gharial, crocodilian, American alligator, Chinese alligator, apex predator, prehistoric animals, brumation, estivation, gator hole, gator attack, Florida wildlife, reptiles, freshwater predators, cloaca, death roll, gator myths, sewer gators, William Bartram, John James Audubon, man-eaters, crocodilian evolution, alligator reproduction, parthenogenesis, Everglades, ecosystem, natural history, Fresh Hell Podcast

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the Fresh Hell podcast.
0:14.6	Fresh Hell contains stories of a disturbing and often graphic nature and is intended for a mature audience.
0:20.6	Please don't let your kids listen to this, or they might turn out like us.
0:29.9	Hi, I'm Annie in Massachusetts, where it is mostly saved to swim in lakes and other bodies of
0:37.3	fresh water, mostly.
0:40.0	And I'm Johanna in Austria, where it's also pretty safe to swim in freshwater rivers and
0:45.0	lakes, and you're listening to Fresh Hell, your favorite international podcast.
0:51.1	The podcast hosted by two women on different continents who met online, started a
0:56.8	podcast together and became friends, but have never met in person. The universe is conspiring
1:03.3	against our meeting. I'm convinced of that now. There's a curse. I just keep making plans to
1:08.8	visit and the gods laugh at me. We're just, we're cursed. It's fine, though. We're fine with curses. At least the curse is on brand for us. You're not wrong. Johanna, do you know what our local fresh water has in common? Leeches. I was like, I wonder what terrible things we both have in water. Leeches.
1:41.5	I know another thing. We both have to be careful in winter to make sure the water or the ice on the water is a little over 10 centimeters or at least four inches in thickness if you want to walk or skate on it.
1:44.2	Yeah, that's right. You don't want to go out on thin ice.
1:47.2	But now it's summer and we don't have to worry about ice.
1:53.7	And because I'm in Europe, one of only two continents, Antarctica is the other one,
1:58.1	where crocodilians don't currently exist in the wild, I am safe.
2:04.9	And Annie is too far north for them, so she's safe as well. But there are a lot of places in the world where you do need to worry, or at least be aware that you are cohabitating
2:10.0	with some of the world's oldest predators. There are, after all, over 20 species of living crocodilians divided into three families,
2:21.1	which are alligatoridae, which includes eight species of alligators and caymen.
2:26.7	Then we have crocodilidae, which has 16 species of true crocodiles, and, last but not least,
2:33.7	gaviali day which has two species, the gharial and the
2:38.1	Thomas Stoma, the false gharial.
	...

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