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February 15, 2006
African Field Notes: The Crocodile
In Africa, you need to tread lightly near rivers and streams. Otherwise, you might find yourself being a meal for a 20 ft long croc! You will often find hippos and smaller crocs cohabiting, along with birds and other marine animals.
Crocs are ambush predators. There's a really famous 6 meter croc that lives in Burundi named Gustave, thought to be the largest croc in Africa.
Mama crocs build nests and then guard the eggs from predators. When the babies are ready to hatch, they make grunting or barking noises from inside the egg, and use a short little tooth on the end of their snouts called an “egg tooth” to start breaking out of the leathery shell. Some croc moms even help by gently biting the egg to open it up more easily.
After the young have hatched, the mom carries them to the water in her mouth then guards them for most of the first year of their lives. Sometimes the hatchlings get to ride on her back, too. She will threaten or attack any predator that lurks too close, and in some species she will call the hatchlings to swim into her mouth for protection.
All crocs store fat in their tails, so they can go for quite a while without eating if necessary—as long as two years for some big adults!
Latin Family: Crocodylidae
A Group Is Called: A Congregation (More At: Critter Collectives)
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
Photos: San Diego Zoo & Wild Animal Park: Crocodiles
Living With Predators - Crocs
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Posted by sorsha at February 15, 2006 9:41 PM
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Comments
this is awesome
Posted by: Anonymous | January 17, 2007 8:22 AM
What avrige does a African croc live to,lenth,mass.
Posted by: Jay-Jay | October 26, 2007 8:06 AM
Well, let's talk about the Nile Crocodile... it's the largest croc in Africa and the second largest croc in the world (after the Saltwater croc).
Large means they can grow longer than 5 meters (16 feet), but rarely more than 6 meters.
Male crocs are larger than females, and have been known to top out at over 2000lbs for the REALLY big ones!
Gustave is the largest living croc known, and he's thought to be almost 20 feet long but since he's hard to catch, I don't think anyone knows for sure.
How long they live? Zoo crocs have lived more than 50 years, but their natural life expectancy is thought to be much higher in the wild - provided they make it past the initial stages of life when big crocs and other predators munch on the little crocs.
I got this info from Wikipedia: Nile Crocs.
Posted by: Lauren Darcey | October 27, 2007 9:13 AM
how does a crocodile survive inside of it's egg for so long?
Posted by: Adison Malone | June 20, 2008 9:19 AM
Good question!
Think of a chicken egg... the egg is basically made of three parts: the shell, the yolk, and the white. Fertile eggs will also have an embryo, which will become the baby animal.
The yolk is primarily the food source for the embryo. The white protects the yolk, and also can be a food source. The shell protects all the stuff inside the egg. Once the egg is fertilized and the embryo forms, most eggs need a specific heat for a specific amount of time to develop and finally hatch.
Posted by: Laurie Darcey | June 21, 2008 2:31 PM