Gator gorging aided by special vessel

Salt Lake City -- U.S. biologists said alligators are able to gorge on large, bony prey because of their ability to divert blood away from the lungs and toward the stomach.

University of Utah biologist Colleen G. Farmer said the blood diversion sharply increases the production of gastric acid to digest meals that are equivalent to a 130 pound woman eating a 30 pound hamburger.

Farmer said members of the crocodilian order, to which the American alligator belongs, like to find a warm place to lie down while they digest their meal. During this period, crocodilians divert blood through a special vessel, called the left aorta, which bypasses the lung. This sends carbon dioxide-rich blood straight to the stomach where it helps form gastric acid and bicarbonate, enabling the crocodilians to secrete gastric acid at a rate that is approximately 10 times the highest rates measured in mammals, the university said Monday in a release.

The findings will be published in the March/April 2008 issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.