Alligators perform a natural 'death roll' behavior when hunting, where they grab prey and spin their bodies rapidly to break bones and immobilize the animal; this instinctive action is triggered by their sensory organs detecting prey and is essential for their survival, as it allows them to kill and consume their food efficiently.
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Deep Dive
Have you met our new Gators Yet?๐Added:
We made a trip to the butcher's and got a death roller. Look at this.
>> [music] >> So cool.
Do your death roll.
>> [laughter] >> Oh, she's moving. She's on the move.
She's all ready to go.
I'm going to let you eat first every time.
>> [music] >> I've got our tiniest little gator and we're going to see if he can do a tiny little [music] muffing. He says, "I'll do it." Here we go. Look [laughter] at that little guy. This is Dundee. He's been with us for maybe about 2 months and he is the cutest little boy on the planet. He's got [music] a big personality, let me tell you. He says, "I'm here to take your job, Darth. Don't even get me started." He's a wiggly guy.
Hi, Bubba. Stop. Stop. Stop. You're good. You're good, baby.
Aw, there we [music] go. Let's see if he wants another piece of fish. I'm really literally just putting it right up against her sensory organs, right on her face, so that he can not only smell it and see it, but he also feels it. Here we go. Isn't he so cute?
A little baby gator with a little baby muffing. So, we're going to give my guy a little bit of natural enrichment.
[music] So, one thing that these guys do very easily and very often is a nice old death roll. It's kind of their thing.
Come here, baby. Come here. So, one way to sort of emulate that, come on. Come on over. Is we've got an eel and he's going to work for it, let me tell you.
Okay, grab it. Grab it, baby. Grab it.
Grab it. Okay, let's see. Come here.
Come here, dogs.
There you go. Now, I'm going to just do a little do a little tug-of-war and we'll see if he'll be able to do his death roll. Do your death roll.
>> [laughter] >> Good job, baby. Woah, he almost just broke it. So, that is a perfect example why you do death roll.
He says, "See you later." A very strong eel. The backbone of this guy is crazy.
He snapped that in half. So, that is the point. That is what they're hoping.
Either if they're they're fighting, they'll literally death roll each other's arms up. Can we bring you another? Want some more? Or what they'll do, yeah, yeah, come on. Um, is they will grab their food, grab it by the limb, grab it by something, and they'll just literally do that same thing.
You want some? Here, grab it.
And then they'll do a little death roll.
They'll whip it back and forth as a good example. Good job, baby.
Ooh. And then, look, watch. He's going to get what he needs.
I'm being very careful. I'm watching him very carefully. Good job, baby.
So, that's what they do. They're just very easily, very naturally doing in the wild. This isn't anything crazy. I'm not being mean to them. I'm not making them work for his food. I am making work for his food, but it's very good. It's mentally enriching. It's physically very enriching. They have to work very hard for their food. So, he's got to think through, how can I do this? All he's doing is tapping into his instincts and saying, "Death roll. [music] Do a death roll." Look, cuz all he's got is a little bit of skin in between him and grabbing that second right second meal. Grab it. So, he has to whip his body up.
Oh, what a beautiful thing. He's so pretty. Okay. You want it? Take I love watching death roll. It's so cool. It is so scary though. The amount of, right?
And the amount of ability that they are thinking through and they're processing and they are going and going and going.
So, he knows, he goes, "I got my food.
It's not moving. It's not thinking. It's not doing anything." And then he's going to grab it and he's going to start throwing it back a little bit more so he can then eat the whole thing. So, a lot of times with these guys when they're going to find an animal, what they'll do is they'll go for the jugular because with every animal, if you're getting an animal, they go for the face, they go for the jugular so they can kill it. And they'll whip them back and forth like that. Hopefully in his in his mind, he's hopefully breaking his back, breaking something that will be able to um, have that animal pass away. And then they'll one by one just kind of start [music] to deconstruct the animal, um, and they'll eat it. But, isn't that so cool? So, this guy, we're going to let him go back in his enclosure.
Um, we're going to let him eat what he wants to finish eating. Good job, baby.
That was so good. Go back inside. You're good. Go back inside, baby.
YOU GUYS ARE OH YOU GUYS ARE CRAZY.
MIGHTY. OKAY, here you go. Here you go, babes. Here you go. Here you go. Oh.
They're crazy. And I'm not just like being biased cuz I'm like, "Oh, my cute little crazy animals."
They're insane. They're actually insane.
Here, baby. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
They're fighting like little kids. Come here, babies. Come here. Come on over.
Come on over. Come on over.
Aw, there you go. Look how quick they are. Look how pretty. Hi, baby. Come here.
WOAH.
YOU'RE DOING IT.
YOU'RE COMING OUT. THERE YOU GO.
HEY, HEY, HEY, WE DON'T NEED TO PARTY.
STOP, STOP, STOP.
There you go. Okay, so with this guy, he came out. I have got a little surprise for him. So Ate doesn't know this, but he's going to get some fun enrichment. There you go.
Show me your death roll. Show me your death roll. Show me your death roll, baby.
Going to let him get a little bite on it to where he feels comfortable, feels confident in it, where he wants it. What he's going to do Okay, so with this guy, what he'll do is he's not doing a death roll yet, but he may. He may decide he wants to do a death roll. But what he's doing is he is grabbing it. He's holding on. He's being very patient, which is this is incredible enrichment cuz what he's doing is he's thinking. Instinctually, what am I supposed to do? As the gator species, I'm not [music] as mean.
Um as the gator, what am I supposed to do? This animal I'm trying to get, but it won't it won't it won't let go. What that is I'm not winning. We don't know what to do. So in their mind, he's thinking through different possibilities. So right now, all he's doing, all he's learning and teaching himself to do is just hold on really tight, which let me tell you he's doing a great job. But with these guys, look how strong they are.
Look at that. So see, he's nearly going straight into a death roll, and then he tries to work it through. He's whipping it back and forth. And then do you see how he's all ringed up right there? Or he's twisted? So that already is breaking the spine, breaking the bones, breaking everything. It's breaking it down immediately. So then when he starts to do his back and forth, so if this animal's trying to get away, he's kind of doing this. My gator is just thinking. He's thinking, "What am I supposed to do? One, is this animal going to hurt me? Am I trying to get away from something that will get me? Or can I do this?" And look at this tail.
He's thinking. He's processing. He's like, "I'm strong. I'm a big individual.
What can I do?" So, if this animal is now trying to go up a tree, they're going to immediately go into DEATH ROLL MODE.
>> [laughter] >> SO, WHAT THEY'LL DO IS THEY'LL DO THAT SAME THING. THEY'RE GOING TO wrap it around. They're doing all kinds of different stuff. So, with this guy, he's still kind of They don't need to learn how to do it, but again, they instinctually need to kind of figure it out. With this one, he wants another chicken.
But it is incredible enrichment cuz in the wild, they've got to do that already. That's not something that they get to get away from. Is they've got to move around. They've got to run. They've got to jump a little bit. They've got to do all their different things just to get their meal.
There we go. All right, let's see if that other guy will come out for us.
Come here, baby.
>> [laughter] >> Come here, baby. Come here.
Come here.
You want to come out? Yeah, he loves coming out. Come on. There you go. All right. So, he's just going to be eating a big old eel.
Let's see if he'll do it. Come here, baby.
Come here.
Oh, look at him.
Yeah, see? He's already kind of hitting it back and forth. He's working real hard. He's going to do a nice little death roll for us. And then he's going to do it again. Are you going to do it again, baby? Yes, he's ripping it back and forth. Death roll. This is not me teaching him. This is me coming to his world and doing it the way he wants to do it. He wants to work for it. He wants to rough and tough, just like a dog, just like a cat where you're playing with all the different things. This is him working for his food. He wants to do this. It's good for their brain. It's good for their body. It's good for their structure. It's good for everything about him. This is what they're designed Sometimes you give them sweet smells all over the place. Sometimes you let them death roll ON THE GROUND.
>> [laughter] >> SOMETIMES YOU TO TUG-OF-WAR WITH THEM.
SO, SEE? He even let go real quick. He's getting a better grip cuz he's like, "You know what? This animal Oh, but look look look look look." So, with this look, he's literally breaking it from it because it's separated. He's like, "I'm tired." But, that grip on his mouth did not stop. So, even if he's taking a break, he's not stopping. So, this is literally how you learn about a gator is you interact with them in their world. This is not my world.
This is not what we're working to do is to be able to I'm working just to educate. When you guys are listening, you guys are watching, this is what a death roll is. This is what these guys are created for.
But, see he'll go all the way up.
He'll death roll it.
Isn't that so cool? Isn't that so beautiful? And look, it literally just breaks apart. Ooh, you've never been this far. [laughter] Here you go. There you Oh, Yeah, see he's fine.
>> [laughter] >> All enrichment, all in favor for him.
I'm going to give him the last little bit of this eel.
You want to eat it? There you go.
I'll put him back now. Hi, sweet Coco girl. I was prepping food for Darth and Gomer, and Coconut said, "Hello, Jimmy.
Jimmy, hello. How are you?" We're going to go over here. Oh my goodness, be patient. Be patient, love.
Get it. GET IT. OH, SHE DID WHOA. OH, HE'S GOING TO get the liver first. This girl knows how to eat. So, see you will see watch her smell it out. So, see how cuz she's a gator, she's got all of those sensory organs. So, what she's doing is she Oh, that was actually a pig nose.
Isn't that so funny? So, she's got a bunch of little tiny dots all around her face cuz her sensory organs ears will go under um the bottom of lakes and bottom of bodies of water wherever they're at, and then they'll just rail their face around.
[music] And all they're doing is they're raking their their jaw on the ground, and they're sensing what's around them.
So, with her, we'll see what she's doing. She swallowed. She was Whoa.
That was a pig nose. That was a lot of nose.
She's a big girl. Look at that.
Isn't she pretty?
Girl, it's behind you.
Oh, there we go.
All right. Now we got to go fish it out.
Did you take it to the floor, girl? We might have to treat you like a vacuum.
Get it, girl. Get it, girl.
Get it, girl.
Vacuum it up. Vroom, vroom, vroom.
Oh, look at that.
Oh my gosh, just like that. Just to feel the power while she's doing it is so much fun getting to hear the crunch, too. What she'll do is she'll walk around until she feels safe for a moment. You give her a stop and she'll stop [music] and then she'll throw it back, chewing. And then watch, give her 1 second.
So she's also going to tenderize it a little bit, also. Ooh, yummy.
She's loving it. So, like I was saying with her eyesight, so she uses all of her sensory organs. She uses her smell.
She uses all kinds of things that are happening. So and also she's not blind.
She doesn't always rely on her vision to begin with. Oh, the fish isn't gone yet.
Did she So what's happening is we just gave her a big [music] nose. We gave her a piece of liver and all that stuff is right here. So I don't think that she has swallowed the other stuff. So see that fish? So she's like, you know what?
Maybe she should stop a little bit. So she's breathing. You can literally see her breathing here and then she's going [music] to swallow.
And then she's going to grab the next piece of food and then she's going to do it all.
So sweet girl is just going to take her time. But in the meantime, do you want to see what I have prepped for Darth and Gomer? They also are smelling. Look at them. They are like, "Hello, eat me."
Straight to the butcher.
A lovely salmon [music] for Darth. Big old Darth and Gomer boy. So, let's see.
If coconut Oh, I think she's finally going to take it down.
Sweet girl. There we go. She did it.
I think that was a lot of food. I think that's good for Coconut.
Are you ready to feed Darth and Gomer?
Let's see. Look at this. I've got salmon, I've got nose right here, pig's ear, pig's foot, and a couple of cow cow tongues. Let me tell you, that's a hearty breakfast. Ain't nothing like this. Not a head of salmon, that's [music] crazy. Okay, let's see if they want it. I'm pretty sure. Look at them, they go, "Yeah, we want it. Everything [music] is perfect. Please hurry, go faster."
Darth on the right, Gomer on the left.
Look at Darth, he goes, "I'm in eating position. Let's do it."
Okay. So, I was thinking maybe I'll even give him a salmon head, so give me a second to be able to give Gomer a tongue.
Are we ready? Hi, babies. Gomer, I hate babies. Babies, babies, come Stop, stop, stop.
Darth, come here. Come here.
Oh, show me your baby arms. Show me your baby arms. Woah!
Come here, come here, get it. Come here, get it. Come here, get it.
Are you ready?
We got to practice this. Woah. Come here.
Woah! Straight down, that's Gomer.
We like to pretend he's a Florida gator.
Now, I've got a [music] little pig butt.
You want a pig butt, baby?
Yeah, he can swallow that salmon face.
Okay, you ready? Okay, >> [laughter] >> get it, get it. Woah! Look at it, it goes straight down. It's all really like a french fry. Should we give Darth the pig nose?
Or pig ear? I think we'll give him the pig ear.
Oh, or Gomer. Yeah, Gomer.
So, Gomer, I like to say it every time.
So, with him, we got to give him a slowly over here. Let me get that one.
There we go. So, his mouth doesn't open very well. He's had that his whole life.
So, what we do is we go in and open them. So, we want to make sure that we're getting all the different nutrition into him that he can, even though we can only open his mouth just a little tiny bit. We like to help them out.
Oh, right through the middle. My bad.
I ain't no baseball player, let me tell you that. A little pig nosey.
Come here.
The job is rough, let me tell you. So, with this boy with a big old mouth who ain't eat, but I want to make sure that this guy gets all his food. So, I got to try to I told you where they've got all the sensory organs right around their mouth and on their nose and everywhere. So, what he'll do is eventually they'll go down to the bottom and they'll eat all of it. But, I'm going to work very hard to get this chicken in the and go in his mouth. Let me tell you, it's hard in between the 250 lb gator, 300 lb gator. Come here.
Come here.
And him not being able to get it in his mouth.
It is not an easy task.
Get out of the way.
I love you, but move.
Okay.
Gomer, come on. Get on there. You know I don't feel like you were trying to get any.
He's not going to get that.
Oh!
Jarred's got that in 1 ms. Oh my gosh.
Well, come here. Come on, baby.
There we go. That's one.
Gomer!
Aw, look at that. That was such a nice little throw.
Oh!
Whoops! I did that. I made the brothers fight, let me tell you. Okay, well, there you go. That's all I got. That's all I got from my butcher shop. Okay, cool. Let's see what else I'm going to feed.
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