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An Alligator's Sixth Sense
Devil's BSD writes "NPR has this article about how alligators sense their prey. Apparently, those black dots on a alligator are really "dome pressure receptors", which alligators use to detect changes in water pressure caused by ripples in the water. The alligator then does some fancy triangulation, and can then detect precisely where its prey is."
The article I read a day or two ago (on CBC's website compared it to the human ear. Our ear works basically the same way as these sensors. When there's a lot of noise, it tends to be ignored, but you can still pick out differences. My guess would be that the first few drops may get the gator's attention, but after that it would become background "noise". However, an animal splashing around would proably make bigger waves, and thus be more noticeable.