Crocodilians are one of the few reptile taxa that exhibit parental care. In alligators, following nest construction, females stay nearby in a guard hole, and are known to defend their nests against predators or other intruders. At the end of the 60-day incubation period, alligator hatchlings will vocalize from within the egg, to signal to the mother that they are ready to hatch. At hatch, female alligators will dig open the nest mound to help the hatchlings exit the nest. Alligator mothers will stay with their hatchlings for the next one to two years, protecting them from larger alligators or other predators. In South Carolina, alligator nests hatch in late summer, and hatchlings over-winter with their mother in a nearby den, and emerge in spring. Hatchlings do not grow very much over winter, so the hatchlings in these pictures are from the 2015 nesting season.
Abigail Lawson. Public domain.
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/alligator-hatchlings">United States Geological Survey</a>