Sneaking up on alligators reveals they engage in odd type of sleep, researchers say

As if alligators weren’t intimidating enough, experts have discovered the predators practice a form of sleep that keeps one half of their brain awake at all times.

The discovery was made the hard way when a researcher touched the tail of a seemingly dead alligator in Oklahoma’s Red Slough Wildlife Management Area.

“The alligator abruptly righted itself, dove, and swam away,” Southeastern Oklahoma State University master’s student Sydnee Brown wrote in the peer-reviewed journal Herpetological Review.

It quickly became clear other alligators in the slough were acting the same way, leading Brown to conclude they were literally half a sleep.

“The research team observed alligators making small openings in the vegetation that covers most of the water surface. During the day, the alligators sleep in these openings, often with one eye open and the axis of their body tilted so either the left or right side is slightly higher in the water column,” Southeastern Oklahoma State University wrote in a Facebook post.

“This behavior was observed multiple times and is an indicator that the alligators were engaged in unihemispheric sleep in which one half of the brain is asleep while the other half is awake.”

Brown and her team are the first to report this behavior among alligators in the wild, the university said.

The researchers, which included Jared Wood of the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge, believe unihemispheric sleep is possibly common among alligators in the Southeast. The species is native to the region.

Brown notes in her research that unihemispheric sleep has been documented in “several non-avian reptile species,” including caimans.

Red Slough Wildlife Management Area covers 5,814 acres in southeast Oklahoma, and 2,400 acres are wetlands popular with alligators.

The team tested its theory by sneaking up on alligators exhibiting the same signs: floating amid vegetation, body tilted to the left or right, and one eye closed.

What they discovered is alligators had no reaction when the water was disturbed, “but when physical contact was made with the paddle against the alligator’s tail, the animal immediately righted itself and swam away.”

Alligators observed by the team were located with radio tracking devices attached as part of ongoing research, officials said.

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