Do Alligators Eat Turtles? (with Real Life Facts)

Alligators are known for having one of the most powerful bites in the world. Turtles are known for having the best defense against any predator. So, what would happen if those two meet? Will the alligator try to eat the turtle? And if it tries will it be able to do so?

Alligators do eat turtles, but turtles are not an alligator’s main prey. Alligators can choose to attack and eat a turtle if there is no other food source around, or if they consider that that respective turtle is easy prey. But in general, due to their hard shells alligators avoid eating turtles.

So, turtles are not necessarily their favorite food, since they can be very hard to eat and swallow, but it’s entirely not uncommon to see an alligator attacking or eating a turtle. But the hard shell is not the only thing that will an alligator from trying to eat a turtle.

How Turtles Defend Against Alligators

The shell of a turtle it’s indeed its main protection against predators, but that’s not the only thing that turtles rely on.

Swimming

As we all know turtles are quite slow, in fact, they are often considered one of the slowest animals in the world. But this is not entirely turtle. While turtles are very slow on land, they can be quite fast in the water.

So one of the things that a turtle will do if it sees an alligator getting close to it is swim away, plain and simple.

The average swimming speed of a turtle is 10 MPH (16 km/h), and the average speed of an alligator is 20 MPH (32 km/h). So there is quite a big difference, but not big enough to stop a turtle from quickly finding a hiding spot.

Turtles are very cautious, and they don’t usually swim too far from the shore of the lake, pond, etc. Combining this with their ability to sense all underwater vibrations. They should be able to find a hiding spot in time.

Hiding and Camouflaging

And speaking of hiding. Turtles are excellent at hiding their presence, especially if they know that there is a predator nearby.

And most turtles have a natural camouflage that will protect them from predators with poor eyesight, like the alligator.

Here are a few examples of turtles in their natural habitat, as you can see they are pretty good at blending in.

Some turtles are so good at hiding that they take things a step further and end up in some really strange places, like in this picture:

A Hard Shell

But the main thing that protects a turtle from a crocodile is the shell. And that shell can withstand some force

On average a turtle’s shell can support pressure up to 200 times its own weight. So a turtle that weighs 5 pounds can withstand a force of up to 1000 psi.

An alligator on the other hand has a bite that can be as powerful as 3000 psi. So, at first sight, it seems that things don’t look that well for the turtle. But in reality, things are a little different.

The 3000 psi bite was done under ideal conditions, not while the alligator was hunting, plus it was a full-grown adult. Most adult alligators don’t waste their time looking for turtles, they are interested in bigger prey.

Also, the turtle won’t just stay in the alligator’s mouth and wait to be bitten, it will move around, so the bite force will get diminished a lot.

This doesn’t mean that a turtle can resist hundred of bites, but it can usually survive one or two bites.

Another way in which the shell protects the turtle from alligators is by being hard to swallow. While alligators have very big mouths that shouldn’t have any problem wallowing a few shell pieces, the problem is that those pieces can be very sharp, and they can cause internal bleeding, and they know this. And if possible they would like to avoid this situation.

Some turtles also have spikes on their shells, like the alligator snapping turtle, for example.

And while they are not the sharpest spikes in the world, they can do some serious damage to anything that tries to bite them.

What Alligators Chose to Eat Instead of Turtles

So, turtles are not the easiest prey, they are more of a rarity or a last resort.

Instead of turtles, most alligators eat:

Fish
Deer
Birds
Snakes
Small Mammals

All of which are considerably easier to eat than a turtle. Overall the diet of an alligator is 75% made out of fish, since it’s easy to catch and eat, and is plentiful. Things like deer, and birds, are a welcomed addition, but they are not that easy to catch. Snakes and smaller mammals are a little more common than deers and birds, but they are not as plentiful or as easy to catch as fish, so they only make up a small part of their diet.

Final Thoughts

So, do alligators eat turtles? Yes, they do. But they only do so very rarely, since turtles are not that easy to catch or swallow.

If you would like to know more things about turtles that we touched upon in this article but didn’t go into depth, like how fast they are, how hard their shell is, etc. You can check out those articles: