Of the three families of Crocodylia- Crocodylidae (crocodiles), Alligatoridae (alligators and caiman), and Gavialidae (gharial and false gharial)- only the Alligatoridae are represented in the United States. There are eight extant species of Alligatoridae, including six species of caiman and two alligators.

The critically endangered Alligator sinensis, or Chinese Alligator, resides only in very small, fragmented areas in the southeastern Anhui Province in east China. The population estimate is fewer than 200 total animals and fewer than 90 mature adults. 


















The American Alligator, Alligator mississippiensis, can be found in the southeastern U.S., as far west as Del Rio, Texas to as far west as Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and as far south as the Florida Keys to as far north as Jonesboro, Arkansas. In Alabama, the range typically extends north only as far as Montgomery in central and eastern Alabama, but in the west, it runs as far north as the Bankhead National Forest. The range map below shows how Harmon Park, in Columbiana, AL, is apparently situated just barely outside of the American Alligator's reported habitat range. 
















There have, however, been numerous reported sightings to the north east of Bankhead, just south-southwest of Huntsville around the Wheeler National Wildlife orange squares) how widely distributed gators are around our state.