Dark gray or black in color with a fully armored body, the Chinese alligator grows to 1.5–2.1 metres (5–7 ft) in length and weighs 36–45 kilograms (80–100 lb) as an adult.

[7] Pleistocene fossils show that its range was once much more extensive, extending northwards to Shandong and southwards to the Taiwan Strait.

[13] He said that the alligator lived in "caverns" in the day and hunted at night, and that humans targeted its meat and skin, with its gall bladder having multiple medical purposes.

In 1656, Martino Martini, a priest, wrote that the Chinese alligator lived in the river Yangtze and was "much feared by the local residents".

[14] There is still not a consensus among biologists that the American and Chinese alligators belong to the same genus, despite multiple studies comparing the biochemistry, histology, and various other aspects of the two crocodilians.

[21] One of the smallest species of crocodilians, the Chinese alligator attains a length of 1.5–2.1 metres (5–7 ft) and weight of 36–45 kilograms (80–100 lb) as an adult.

[23] Reports are known of alligators in China reaching 3 metres (10 ft) in past centuries, but these are no longer thought to be accurate.

It constructs its burrows next to ponds and other small bodies of water, using its head and front legs to dig into the ground.

[36] This temperature controls whether a young alligator will be male or female (temperature-dependent sex determination),[32] a feature present in many other reptiles.

[38] Young depend on their mothers to protect them during their first winter, as their small size makes them an easy prey target.

Lasting an average of 10 minutes, the alligators remain still for the entirety of the chorus, with both sexes responding equally in rough unison.

[46] The main purpose of these bellows is to call out to alligator specimens to collect at a specific pond, where individuals choose mates and engage in copulation.

Embryos produce distinctive sounds inside their eggs, which alert the adult female that the nest is ready to be opened.

By the late 1980s, it was restricted to small ponds in six counties in the southeastern part of Anhui province; and since of 2015, the IUCN estimates the area of occupation at about 5 square kilometres (1.9 sq mi).

[28] The habitat of the Chinese alligator is bodies of fresh water, particularly wetlands and ponds,[2] in areas transitioning between subtropical and temperate climates.

[34] Habitat loss has also forced it to live at higher elevations than it prefers, where the weather is colder and the soil is unfit for burrow digging.

[50] The population of the Chinese alligator began to decline in 5000 BC, when human civilization started to grow in China, after having been very abundant in the lower Yangtze area.

[49] In the 1700s, much of the Chinese alligator's habitat was replaced with farming fields after a large number of people had moved into the area.

[51] In the 1950s, the alligator was in three distinct areas: the southern area of the Yangtze (Chang Jiang) from Pengze to the western shore of Lake Tai (Tai Hu), the mountainous regions of southern Anhui, and the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, primarily in lakes, streams, and marshes.

[2] A survey of the population by the Anhui National Nature Reserve for Chinese Alligator (ANNRCA) in 2005 deduced that between 92 and 114 adults and 66 young remained in the wild.

[2] Due to the low wild population of the Chinese alligator, high inbreeding is a major concern threatening their chances for long-term survival.

[57] Considered to be one of the most endangered crocodilians in the world,[51] the Chinese alligator's biggest threats in the late 20th century were human killing and habitat loss.

[54] Their meat was thought to have the ability to cure colds and prevent cancer[6][58] and their organs were sold for medicinal purposes.

[21] In several restaurants and food centers in China's more prosperous areas, young alligators were allowed to roam free with their mouths taped shut, and were subsequently killed for human consumption,[59] served as a dish of rice, vegetables, and chopped up alligator flesh.

[6] The organochlorine compound sodium pentachlorophenate was used to kill snails in agricultural fields starting in 1958, which incidentally poisoned the alligators as well.

[64] As of June 2016, the largest group of Chinese alligators to have been released in the wild was when 18 specimens were reintroduced to Langxi County, part of the species' native habitat, on May 22, 2016.

[2] In 2003, the ARCCAR received a donation of $1.2 million from the State Forestry and Grassland Administration of China (SFGA) and $740,000 from the government of Anhui.

This allowed the organization to create two new breeding areas to hold the alligators, 1.6 hectares (4.0 acres) each, as well as heighten the existing fence.

The same year, the CCANR received a donation of $600,000 from the SFGA and $800,000 from the government of Changxing, enabling it to reinstate wetlands for the alligators and enhance its facilities.

[77][78] Alligator drums may have been used to simulate the species' vocalizations during the mating season, which humans associated with the dragon's "power of summoning rainclouds".