Meet the Smallest / Rarest Alligator species in the World

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]And we're back today with another animal video. So, I'm going to put y'all on to a species y'all never heard about before. [music] So, a lot of you watching might be familiar with the American alligator, right? Now, you might be shocked to find out there's actually another species of alligator that lives out in China. Now, these guys are what's known as Chinese alligators, and they are much smaller than their American cousins. [music] Now, the reason why you might not have heard about this species is because they are critically endangered. They're said to be only 150 individuals remaining out in the wild, and [music] there's a couple thousand scattered in different facilities in captivity to help rebuild their population. So, they suffered immense habitat destruction over the years, thus limiting their population, [music] which is probably the reason why you haven't heard about them. But, these guys will only get around 5 to 7 ft long and max out at around 50 [music] lb. And some key differences between them and their American cousins outside of obvious size, they have a fatter head than their cousins, and they are [music] also much more bonier. So, for example, they have a kind of bony plate on their eye, which the American alligator doesn't have. They also have a bony plate on their belly area, which the American alligator doesn't have. And these guys are said to be the inspiration behind the modern dragons that we know. So, if you think about dragon artwork, these guys are the inspiration behind that. They're also they're opportunistic predators, [music] so they'll eat fish, crustaceans, mammals, and birds.