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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In a pond near the Launch Pad 39 area at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, an alligator hides in the shadows under overhanging branches. Nearly 5,000 alligators can be found in canals, ponds and waterways throughout the Center and the surrounding Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. American alligators feed and rest in the water, and lay their eggs in dens they dig into the banks. The young alligators spend their first several weeks in these dens. The Wildlife Refuge encompasses 92,000 acres that are a habitat for more than 331 species of birds, 31 mammals, 117 fishes, and 65 amphibians and reptiles.