cepedian2un, Leponsis spp., Centrarchidae, and Lepisosteus spp., the MNT would be

three. Dorosonza spp would be lumped with Dorosonza cepedianunt and Centrarchidae

would be lumped with Leponsis spp. The MNT method allowed us to avoid artificially

over representing the diversity of prey consumed (i.e., using all the taxa) and avoid under

representing the diversity of the prey consumed (i.e., lump by family groups). This

enabled us to clearly identify the diversity and equitability of prey consumed by the

alligators and this was applied to samples containing fresh prey, and samples containing

fresh fish. The diversity index ranges from zero to five and a greater diversity was

indicated by a score closer to five (Krebs 1999, Ludwig and Reynolds 1988). The

equitability index ranged from zero to one and a greater equitability of prey was indicated

with a score closer to one (Ludwig and Reynolds 1988)

Statistical analysis

 All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software (SPSS 2000). The

diet data did not meet the requirements of normality and homogeneity of variances;

therefore, non-parametric statistics were utilized. Three statistical tests were used on the

stomach content samples with fresh prey to identify any differences in the diet of

alligators among lakes.

 A chi-square test was performed to compare the frequency of occurrence of fish

and other prey among the lakes. Mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians were lumped

together to form the other prey group due to low cell count. The Kruskal-Wallis analysis

of variance rank test was used to look for significant differences in the following two

tests. The mean biomass for the samples containing fresh prey was compared among

lakes. I hypothesized that the amount of prey consumed by the alligators would vary and

therefore the mean biomass consumed by the alligators would be different among lakes.