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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about gar. For more facts on awesome animals, don’t forget to subscribe! Gar were requested by Pinknight - what an interesting looking specimen!

Gar are fish that have been around for a long time. They’re often cited as “prehistoric” fish because they haven’t changed much from their fossils that date back to the end of the Jurassic period. That means that these fish, or at least family members who were very much like them, swam with dinosaurs! The lack of changes in the gar’s physique indicates that it got something right with how its body is laid out and it’s able to handle the environments in which it lives.

There are currently seven species of gar and they are all found from Quebec to Costa Rica, though they once had a much broader range. Gar prefer slow-moving, shallow waters such as wetlands, estuaries, and even lakes. They can survive in low-oxygen areas because they are able to breathe the same air a human would. Gar can pull air into their swim bladder - which acts as a sort of lung - and then disperse the oxygen within their body. Remember some of the other animals we’ve previously discussed with this fishy ability?

In the water, a gar can appear like a floating stick. They don’t move much or very fast until they need to. Gar fins are specialized to allow them to move quickly through the water and strike down prey with their sharp teeth. A gar’s mouth can be long or short, though really it depends on the species. After catching a meal in form of a fish, crustacean, or insect, a gar will usually swallow it whole. As babies, they eat smaller prey items like minnows, but they grow quickly and by the time they reach full size, the largest gars can be up to ten feet (3m) long! Even though they can be that big, they’re rarely eaten by humans, but alligators do dine on gar from time to time.

Not much is known about gar mating habits. They typically take at least three to five years to reach sexual maturity, however, this largely depends on the species. When they do mate, the males and females broadcast spawn in the springtime and the fertilized eggs are green in color and stick to surfaces throughout their environment. It takes about a week for the eggs to hatch and mom and dad don’t help with raising the kids. Some species of gar, like the alligator gar, may live to be fifty years old, but somewhere around twenty might be a closer average.

Gar scales have been used to make jewelry though some people refer to them as “trash fish”. Apparently, these fish have a bad reputation among certain groups of people. They’ve been falsely accused of being an invasive species to their natural habitats as well as dangerous predators in waterways. While they do look intimidating, there’s never been a documented case of a gar attacking a human, and if you’ve watched this video all the way through, then you know they aren’t an invasive species to eastern North and Central America. It just goes to show things aren’t always as they seem in the animal world!

For more facts on gar, check out the links in the description. What do you think of these crazy looking fishes? Thank you for watching, and be sure to give a thumbs up for more Animal Fact Files.