Home › Volumes › Reptiles › Crocodilians
American Crocodile
- Colouration
- Young specimens are distinctly greenish, with black markings. Half grown individuals and young adults are olive, while very old specimens are dull gray. The olive or gray tints may be at once recognised from the black, or blue-black of an alligator, and if the creature be in the water and the head not clearly distinguishable, the colour is a good character upon which to judge the animal's kind.
- Dimensions
- As the Crocodile in Florida frequents portions of the peninsula that are less disturbed than the domains of the alligators, occasional very large specimens are recorded. The maximum length appears to be about fourteen feet. Specimens eleven and twelve feet long are not rare in the extreme southern portion of the state.
- Distribution
- The American Crocodile was first discovered in the United States by Mr. William T. Hornaday. North of Mexico, the species occurs only in the extreme southern portion of the Florida peninsula. Regarding it, Mr. Hornaday writes: "The presence of a true crocodile in Florida was not discovered until 1875, when a pair of specimens of large size were collected in Arch Creek, at the head of Biscayne Bay, by Mr. C. E. Jackson and the writer. The male measured 14 feet 2 inches (with 4 inches of his tail missing) and the female 10 feet 8 inches. Since that date, at least seventy specimens have been taken between Lake Worth and Cape Sable. Lake Worth is the Northern limit of the species, but it is most abundant in the watery labyrinth of low land and shallow water where the mainland of Florida reluctantly sinks into the Gulf."
- Habits
- The Crocodile is a considerably more agile and more vicious reptile than the alligator, yet in a wild state this species does not exhibit hostility toward man. The sight of a child will send a twelve-foot specimen rushing from its basking place for the water, and a man may even bathe with safety in rivers frequented by the species. The dangerous, "man-eating" crocodiles inhabit India and Africa.
Little in the way of description is necessary as under the head of the Alligator, the structure of the present species has been compared with the former.
The Crocodile is a more slender and a much more agile species than the alligator. Its long, narrow and pointed head at once distinguishes it.
Compared with the alligator, the teeth are larger (longer) and more pointed. By a peculiar development of the snout--immediately in front of the nostrils--two of the teeth of the lower jaw usually pierce the upper, bony process and their points glisten above the dark skin of the snout.
Following are the measurements of an adult, female specimen, in the New York Zoological Park:
Total length. . . . . 10 feet, 2 1/4 inches.
Length of Tail. . . . . 4 feet, 9 inches.
Length of Head. . . . . 22 inches.
Length of Largest Teeth. . . . . 1 inches.
Girth of Body. . . . . 3 feet, 11 inches.
Weight. . . . . 280 pounds.
South of the United States the American Crocodile has an extensive range. It occurs from central Mexico to Ecuador and in the West Indies. It is more frequently abundant in saltwater marshes.
In the habit of choosing certain basking places along the river bank and repeatedly crawling into these spots to sun, this creature resembles the alligator. It usually selects "water holes" (deep places in the streams) as its lair and here hides under the shelving bank on the lookout for food.
Of the nine captive specimens that have, at various times, been under the writer's observation, all have exhibited a uniform viciousness approaching actual hostility. This in direct opposition to the reptile's timidity when in a wild state and altogether different from the good-natured demeanour of captive alligators which learn to follow their keeper about like dogs, feed from his hands and permit the man to walk over their backs in unceremonious fashion. One captive (Florida) crocodile was so hostile that it would chase the keeper from its enclosure if he attempted to enter and for a quarter of an hour or more would hiss with much vigour and snap its jaws with rage. Another large specimen permitted the keeper to enter the paddock, but could never be trusted as it would frequently turn upon the man with wonderful agility. This creature could actually run, with some speed and grace, the body raised fully a foot from the ground. Compared with the clumsy movements of an alligator, its activity was surprising for a creature of so similar a structure. In spite of their ugliness, these captive crocodiles were voracious in their feeding and anxious enough to take food from their keeper's hand--in fact so greedy were the brutes that they were very dangerous. They would spring half their length out of the water by suddenly elevating the heavy tail, and, as that member fell, like the weighted end of a see-saw, the body shot upward; this movement was assisted by an upward leap, bringing the animal fully five feet out of the water and with good certainty of aim at the object it was after. They were given fowls, large fish and raw beef, at intervals of about three days apart. On this food they flourished and grew at about the same rate as the alligators.
The specimen from which the measurements were taken deposited thirty eggs. These were three and one-half inches long and two inches in diameter. The shell was hard and considerably thicker than that of a duck's egg.