On the Variability of Alligator Sex Ratios

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Abstract
Samples of alligators from wild and farm populations exhibited disproportionate sex ratios. Males predominated among young alligators from wild populations, whereas females were much more abundant than males in the farm population, where resources were superabundant. Environmental factors may influence sex determination in alligators. During favorable environmental conditions, natural selection is expected to favor a preponderance of the sex whose individuals exhibit the greater environmentally associated variation in relative fitness. Environmentally associated variation in age at sexual maturity of females probably produces sufficient variation in relative fitness of females to result in selection for low sex ratios during periods of resource abundance.