although the alligator has a heavy body and a slow metabolism, it is capable of short bursts of speed, especially in very short lunges. alligators' main prey are smaller animals they can kill and eat with a single bite. they may kill larger prey by grabbing it and dragging it into the water to drown. alligators consume food that cannot be eaten in one bite by allowing it to rot, or by biting and then spinning or convulsing wildly until bite-sized chunks are torn off. this is referred to as a "death roll". critical to the alligator's ability to initiate a death roll, the tail must flex to a significant angle relative to its body. an alligator with an immobilized tail cannot perform a death roll.