How Fast Can An Alligator Run On Land? Can You Beat Them?

On the other hand, if you're on the other side of a field and you see an alligator coming toward you, you might have a pretty good chance of escaping.

What's really cool is how fast alligators can swoop up nearby prey in really short distances. They have incredible power and agility in these instances.

So you might now be asking,

Okay, if alligators run up to 30 mph at top speed, what is an alligator's average speed?

On average, American alligators can run anywhere between 9 and 11 mph. Though, as we said earlier, most alligators are pretty lazy creatures and will often not exert more energy than they need to. It's pretty rare to see alligators run for more than 100 feet on land.

Compared to many other reptiles, alligators are quite sedentary. In many cases, these big retiles brumate, which means hibernating in such a way that they slow their bodies down to cope with dropping water temperatures.

You'll often see alligators poking their eyes and snouts out of the water to see and breathe, though most of their bodies remain below the surface of the water. The good thing for alligators, however, is that they're able to make use of all the energy they conserve really well when they need it.

FUN FACT: According to studies from the University of Florida, while most alligators only live very sedentary lifestyles and never travel long-distance for mating or food, some of these cold blooded animals are capable of traveling long distances over their lifetimes.

Can You Outrun An Alligator?

With how fast an alligator can run on land, we wouldn't try to outrun an alligator, though if you truly had to and knew a trick or two, you probably could. However, you'd need to be at a pretty fast distance from the alligator in the first place.

On average, humans run at about eight mph. Even the fastest man on Earth could only run just above 23 mph.

We wouldn't worry too much about it, though, as there isn't any documented evidence of alligators trying to run after humans. For starters, humans are too big for most alligators to think of as prey. Secondly, if you're not near an alligator nest or bugging the alligator in any way, it doesn't have a reason to waste its energy on you.

Plus, most alligators will only go up onto dry land to eat animal carcasses. Sometimes, they'll go onto dry land to try and snatch animals that have tethered themselves up, though that's about it.

They truly prefer to eat aquatic animals if they can.

In a hypothetical situation, however, an alligator with an average speed of 10 mph could catch the average human. However, there are much faster people out there, so it really depends on who the alligator is chasing after. Because alligators run quite fast, it is best to try and outrun them in a straight line, as you can run much faster without having to turn.

With that said, we don't recommend putting yourself in danger in the first place!