From nose to tail, belly to back, hard scales protect this petite alligator. Even the eyelids have bony plates under the skin! Chinese alligators use their snout and strong, clawed front feet to dig burrows in the banks of streams. When the cold months come, they hunker down in their burrows or in caves and stay there throughout the winter. These alligators are native to slow-moving freshwater areas in eastern China where they eat snails, crustaceans, insects, fish, and rodents. Their bodies usually grow up to five feet and the largest ever recorded Chinese Alligator was seven feet, still only half the size of American alligators! They are the only member of the eight species in the Alligatoridae family to exist outside the Americas.