“It’s a hilarious party trick that never seems to get old. But scientists didn’t make an alligator inhale helium just for scientific jokes: they wanted to find out why these vocal creatures are so noisy. Both males and females loudly inform the world of their presence year-round using calls known as bellows, although they churn them out more frequently during the mating season. Such long-distance vocalizations have been known to convey certain physical characteristics about the caller, like sex and body size, which is important for both courtship and territorial behavior.”