{"id":12698,"date":"2024-06-20T11:01:07","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T11:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=12698"},"modified":"2024-06-20T11:01:07","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T11:01:07","slug":"alligator-missing-its-entire-top-jaw-leaves-social-media-users-with-one-crucial-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=12698","title":{"rendered":"Alligator missing its entire top jaw leaves social media users with one crucial question"},"content":{"rendered":"

The unfortunate alligator was given a fitting name after being rescued and taken to Gatorland in Florida<\/h2>\n

Everyone has the same question after seeing shocking images of an alligator which is missing its entire upper jaw.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The aptly named Gatorland is a park near Orlando,\u00a0Florida<\/a>, which works to house and look after alligators which have been rescued, whether from being kept as pets or after being injured.<\/p>\n

And in the case of one unlucky alligator, the injury would likely mean that she would not be able to survive long in the wild, so needs looking after.<\/p>\n

That’s because the small alligator has her entire top jaw missing, leaving her mouth completely exposed.<\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/div>\n

The alligator is missing her entire upper jaw (Facebook\/Gatorland Orlando)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Anyone who is at all familiar with the lives of alligators will know that the predators are heavily reliant on their jaw to be able to hunt and feed.<\/p>\n

The terrifying creatures use their enormously powerful bite to grasp their prey and drag it underwater before tearing chunks off it, and not having a top jaw makes that a lot harder.<\/p>\n

After seeing images of the alligator, everyone had the same question: “How does it even eat.”<\/p>\n

Well, Gatorland caretaker Savannah Boan\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Tampa Bay Times: “We put something on her tongue and she puts her bottom jaw up really high and it kind of slides back.”<\/p>\n

Boan reckons when the gator was in the wild, she ‘hunkered down in the shallows’ and ate small fish this way. She added: “She could get a little minnow or something like that.”<\/p>\n

When naming the creator, Gatorland came up with a reference to\u00a0US<\/a>\u00a0icon\u00a0Dolly Parton<\/a>, dubbing her Jawlene.<\/p>\n

Jawlene was caught in mid-September according to a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0from CBS 12 News.<\/p>\n

A picture of Jawlene was posted on social media by Katrina Shadix, who wrote: \u201cIs anyone in the area that can HELP this poor alligator?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Jawlene<\/div>\n

Jawlene the alligator. (Instagram \/ savannahboan)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Wildlife rehabilitator Kim Titterington later described the gator’s state to People as ‘very shocking’.<\/p>\n

Titterington said: \u201cFrom the image I was provided, the alligator appears to have good body weight, and the injury healed over, but the continued survivability in the wild is slim.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be from another alligator but the clean cut also suggests this animal was caught in a hunting snare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently this kind of injury isn’t even that unusual, as Boan said ‘lots of alligators and crocodiles lose their top jaws in battles’ with other animals.<\/p>\n

In an update posted to Gatorland’s Facebook page back in March, the park reported Jawlene is ‘gaining weight, in great health and is living the sweet life in her new home’.<\/p>\n

They added: “Jawlene is a testament to the strength and resilience of the American Alligator. She is a real American treasure, just like Dolly Parton who sings the song that was the inspiration for Jawlene\u2019s name.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The unfortunate alligator was given a fitting name after being rescued and taken to Gatorland…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":93,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}