Life Desk :
With their wide toothy grins and glinting eyes, most of the time crocodiles really look friendly and companionable. You’ll see them basking in the sun, their huge jaws agape so that leeches dry out and small birds can floss their teeth. Of course, in wildlife films, they don’t usually show us how crocs spend most of their time. (You wouldn’t want to see your action hero/villain spending all his time lounging on a futon with his mouth open, would you?) Instead, they’ll show you the classic footage of a pair of glassy eyes and an evil snout suddenly disappearing beneath the water surface. The tension mounts as more crocs lying around do the disappearing act. And sure enough, on the banks of the river upstream, a great herd of bumbling wildebeest have appeared and must cross. The carnage that follows is history.
What’s worse is the extensive footage of grown men jumping on the backs of crocs and attempting to subdue the beasts, trying to prove how macho they are. Sure, crocs may not be cuddlesome – even if high society loves the feel of their leather – but they’re not nearly the voracious monsters they’ve been made out to be.
Like most other life forms on earth, all they really want is to be left alone so that they can get on with their lives. Cross their paths and you’re in trouble.
They’ve been around a long while – over 100 million years – and haven’t changed much in design and can live for over 100 years.
Of the 22 species world wide, three are found in India, the massive (and largest) saltwater or estuarine crocodile, the marsh crocodile or mugger and the precious gharial, still fighting extinction.
The biggies heave to at around 20 feet – the length of the average drawing room – and can weigh over a ton. According to one report I read (and can hardly believe), they (at least large captive specimens) are pretty frugal eaters requiring just 5-10 kg of food per month. They’re usually ambush hunters, lying in wait in the water, near the bank and then rearing out and taking down their prey with one mighty chomp of those massive jaws. They can’t chew, so they break off large chunks from their victims by violently thrashing and rolling in the water (called the death roll), swallowing these whole. They are cold-blooded, and need the sun’s warmth to power up.
For their size, they have tiny brains, but obviously fairly powerful ones; as at least one species – our mugger – has been known to lure birds by balancing twigs on its head to encourage them to pick up as nesting material! Now that’s cruelly devious!
Crocs court and mate in water, with much ritualised bubble-blowing and head movements.
The female lays her eggs on land, either digging a hole or constructing a nest. These hatch in around 60-90 days and she guards them zealously. The babies emit high pitched calls before emerging.
Then follows one of the most amazing sights as the mother gently picks them up one by one in her massive jaws and transports them to the safety of the water. She will look after the babies for a while (sometimes aided by her mate), because they are vulnerable to snakes, fish, lizards and birds. In nature, usually the sex ratio evens out, though the sex of the babies depends on the incubation temperature.
All three of the Indian crocodiles were in danger of extinction – because of hunting for their lucrative skins – until covered by the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972. The mugger or marsh crocodile is the most common, inhabiting marshes, swamps, slow-moving rivers, lakes and large ponds. Males grow to around 5 metres and the species can be quick on land over short distances. They live in strictly hierarchical groups and territorial battles do break out from time to time.
The estuarine or saltwater croc is certainly the largest – one grew to 24 feet – and most irascible of the three, found all along the coast of east and south India in estuaries, creeks and mangrove swamps. It is territorial and solitary and poses the maximum danger.
The slim-snouted gharial, with its row of thin spike-like teeth, is exclusively a fish eater, preferring deep still pools, and by far is the rarest of the three.
By and large, crocs (and their ilk) don’t have a wide circle of friends, but they found one in Rom Whitaker, who with his then wife, Zai, set up the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology, a captive breeding and research center, back in 1976. They have been hugely responsible for the species’ comeback.
While captive breeding has been a spectacular success with crocs, re-introduction into the wild has not, for a reason that affects every animal in such a situation and which, like the proverbial elephant in the room, we’re refusing to acknowledge.
There must be a wild for them to return to, and all too often there’s not. These wild areas are being devoured and pillaged by us like never before.
And you’re not about to say “yes” to having a mugger “re-introduced” into your swimming pool, are you?
The story was originally published with the headline Counting Crocodiles
-From Internet
With their wide toothy grins and glinting eyes, most of the time crocodiles really look friendly and companionable. You’ll see them basking in the sun, their huge jaws agape so that leeches dry out and small birds can floss their teeth. Of course, in wildlife films, they don’t usually show us how crocs spend most of their time. (You wouldn’t want to see your action hero/villain spending all his time lounging on a futon with his mouth open, would you?) Instead, they’ll show you the classic footage of a pair of glassy eyes and an evil snout suddenly disappearing beneath the water surface. The tension mounts as more crocs lying around do the disappearing act. And sure enough, on the banks of the river upstream, a great herd of bumbling wildebeest have appeared and must cross. The carnage that follows is history.
What’s worse is the extensive footage of grown men jumping on the backs of crocs and attempting to subdue the beasts, trying to prove how macho they are. Sure, crocs may not be cuddlesome – even if high society loves the feel of their leather – but they’re not nearly the voracious monsters they’ve been made out to be.
Like most other life forms on earth, all they really want is to be left alone so that they can get on with their lives. Cross their paths and you’re in trouble.
They’ve been around a long while – over 100 million years – and haven’t changed much in design and can live for over 100 years.
Of the 22 species world wide, three are found in India, the massive (and largest) saltwater or estuarine crocodile, the marsh crocodile or mugger and the precious gharial, still fighting extinction.
The biggies heave to at around 20 feet – the length of the average drawing room – and can weigh over a ton. According to one report I read (and can hardly believe), they (at least large captive specimens) are pretty frugal eaters requiring just 5-10 kg of food per month. They’re usually ambush hunters, lying in wait in the water, near the bank and then rearing out and taking down their prey with one mighty chomp of those massive jaws. They can’t chew, so they break off large chunks from their victims by violently thrashing and rolling in the water (called the death roll), swallowing these whole. They are cold-blooded, and need the sun’s warmth to power up.
For their size, they have tiny brains, but obviously fairly powerful ones; as at least one species – our mugger – has been known to lure birds by balancing twigs on its head to encourage them to pick up as nesting material! Now that’s cruelly devious!
Crocs court and mate in water, with much ritualised bubble-blowing and head movements.
The female lays her eggs on land, either digging a hole or constructing a nest. These hatch in around 60-90 days and she guards them zealously. The babies emit high pitched calls before emerging.
Then follows one of the most amazing sights as the mother gently picks them up one by one in her massive jaws and transports them to the safety of the water. She will look after the babies for a while (sometimes aided by her mate), because they are vulnerable to snakes, fish, lizards and birds. In nature, usually the sex ratio evens out, though the sex of the babies depends on the incubation temperature.
All three of the Indian crocodiles were in danger of extinction – because of hunting for their lucrative skins – until covered by the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972. The mugger or marsh crocodile is the most common, inhabiting marshes, swamps, slow-moving rivers, lakes and large ponds. Males grow to around 5 metres and the species can be quick on land over short distances. They live in strictly hierarchical groups and territorial battles do break out from time to time.
The estuarine or saltwater croc is certainly the largest – one grew to 24 feet – and most irascible of the three, found all along the coast of east and south India in estuaries, creeks and mangrove swamps. It is territorial and solitary and poses the maximum danger.
The slim-snouted gharial, with its row of thin spike-like teeth, is exclusively a fish eater, preferring deep still pools, and by far is the rarest of the three.
By and large, crocs (and their ilk) don’t have a wide circle of friends, but they found one in Rom Whitaker, who with his then wife, Zai, set up the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology, a captive breeding and research center, back in 1976. They have been hugely responsible for the species’ comeback.
While captive breeding has been a spectacular success with crocs, re-introduction into the wild has not, for a reason that affects every animal in such a situation and which, like the proverbial elephant in the room, we’re refusing to acknowledge.
There must be a wild for them to return to, and all too often there’s not. These wild areas are being devoured and pillaged by us like never before.
And you’re not about to say “yes” to having a mugger “re-introduced” into your swimming pool, are you?
The story was originally published with the headline Counting Crocodiles
-From Internet
