TWO American alligators recently arrived at the Mansfield Zoo.

Eighteen-year-old Donald from Darling Downs Zoo is the largest of the two at 2.5 metres long weighing 290 kilograms and eight year-old Scooter comes from the Hunter Valley Wildlife Park.

He is 1.2 metres and around 40 kilograms.

Mansfield Zoo owner and operator Bronwen Robins said Donald, despite being the biggest alligator, is actually very quiet and easy to feed whereas Scooter is a little more feisty.

“Scooter will snatch his food and swing his tail around, he’s got a bit of attitude,” she laughed.

“Alligators are very quiet, they’re not aggressive like crocodiles.

“They originate in Florida and in the warmer states of America.

“They are referred to over there as water puppies, which is a good name because they really are just like dogs if they lived in the water.

“We will keep Donald and Scooter in separate enclosures, because of the huge size difference.”

Bronwen said building the alligator enclosures was a lengthy process and she is relieved to have the project completed.

“We started building the three new enclosures pre COVID, so with all the COVID delays it ended up taking four years,” she said.

“About half of the area of each enclosure is a pond.

“The middle enclosure is empty so that the alligators get used to each other.

“One is at one end and one is at the other end.

“Both have big mounds of dirt that are like caves or a dirt igloo that they can go when it’s frosty to get out of the elements, and we’ve built bridges over the ponds as well.

“When they’re more familiar with the enclosure they’ll like to lie on the bricks and bask in the sun, but at the moment they seem to like lying under them to get out of the bright sunlight.

“At the moment they spend 80 per cent of their time in the water and 10 to 20 per cent on the bank.

“They haven’t been into those mounds yet, but we anticipate they’ll go into them once the weather gets really cold or there’s a lot of wind.”

Bronwen said there will soon be two African teamster donkeys arriving at the zoo.

“They are originally from Eritrea and Somalia, but they were bred in Australia,” she said.