Video: Three-Legged Alligator Builds Nest For Her Babies, Internet Amazed

Nothing beats the love of a mother, and now proving this a video showing a three-legged mother alligator taking care of her babies and building a nest for them is gaining traction online. Shared on Facebook, the video shows the mother alligator limping to the nest and taking it apart to get to her babies. 

"She created this big nest with sticks, twigs, etc. and is now protecting her babies with her life with just 3 limbs," the caption of the post read. 

"If this doesn't show you how incredibly fascinating and resilient these creatures are, I don't know what will. They're totally misunderstood. Staying with their babies for up to two years after hatching shows just that. I felt so blessed to witness this," it added. 

Watch the video below: 

The incident took place in Florida, United States. 

Since being shared, the video has left social media users amazed. "Nurturing is instinctive to the species that practice it. Nurturing is an innate response to the creatures that it is instinctive too," wrote one user. "Super cool," added another. 

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Meanwhile, speaking to Newsweek, Coleman M Sheehy, a herpetologist at the Florida Museum of Natural Histroy, explained that parental care is "extremely well developed" in alligators. "Mothers build nests, guard the nests from predators, and help the nest to incubate within the acceptable range of temperatures," Mr Coleman said. 

"This level of protection helps more babies to survive," he added. The herpetologist explained that the benefit of providing parental care in the alligator system is that it greatly increases the chances that some of the offspring will make it to adulthood and, thus, that the female successfully passes on her genetic information to future generations.