Death Roll of the Alligator

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i just spent way too long reading a two thousand and seven journal of experimental biology articles titled death roll of the alligator, mechanics of twist feeding in water. We've had a try going after one when we were in a boat, just to snare it. It was zooming away. And i guess they have arms and legs talk in like a figure skater, spinning like a top, and then their tails angle out like an l also, the paper said spinning is a mechanism that can tear apart large prey by subjecting the tissue to tortonal stresses. Animals and their tissues, it continues, are weak in tortion.

Alligators, crocodiles and … a shut-down nuclear weapons plant? The excitement never ends when you’re Laura Kojima, an Alligator Ecotoxicologist. A longtime reptile cheerleader, Laura has passion to match some truly bananas stories about field work, tail smacks, gator jaws, mercury levels, swamp boats, and crocodilian evolution, overbites, and locomotion. Her incredible work keeps people -- and the gators -- safer in toxic waters and she recalls her favorite alligator bite and the one animal that sent her to the hospital. Also discussed: jorts & gator crotches.

[Audio note: the connection was a little spotty so please forgive occasional static!]

Follow Laura Kojima Twitter.com/laurakojima and Instagram.com/laura.kojima

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Sound editing by Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris

Theme song by Nick Thorburn