Alligator Gar

The alligator gar is a large, primitive freshwater fish native to slow-moving rivers, lakes and swamps of the southeastern and south-central United States, and one of the largest freshwater fish in North America, capable of exceeding two metres in length. It takes its name from its broad, alligator-like snout lined with two rows of sharp teeth, used to seize fish and other prey in a quick sideways strike rather than pursuit. Like other gar species, it has a body armored in thick, diamond-shaped ganoid scales rather than the softer scales of most modern fish, an ancient trait reflecting a lineage stretching back over 100 million years relatively unchanged. It is also an obligate air-breather able to gulp air at the surface using a highly vascularized swim bladder that functions like a lung, allowing it to survive in oxygen-poor water where many other fish cannot. Once heavily persecuted as a perceived threat to sport fish and commercial fisheries, the alligator gar has seen steep declines across parts of its range, and it is now the focus of growing conservation and restocking efforts in several US states.