Photo Taken From http://animals.nationalgeographic.com
by Mark Homann, certified safari guide
The Nile crocodile is a top-of-the-line predator with very few predators of its own. Although the largest record found of the Nile crocodile was in Lake Victoria, Tanzania, measuring 21 ft. in length and weighing 2400 lbs, it’s rare to find these creatures over 16 ft. in length. A crocodile this large must have been very old—likely over 100 years.
They are sexually dimorphic animals, meaning that the male is 30% smaller than the female. One of the advantages to this is that it allows the female to lay more eggs—up to 80 at times.
Unlike other crocodiles the Nile crocodile doesn’t incubate their eggs in rotting vegetation. Rather, they burry them near water in holes dug about 20 in. deep. The gender of the offspring is determined by the temperature in the nest. If the temperature reaches below 89 degrees Fahrenheit, the egg will yield a male and if the nest reaches above 94 degrees Fahrenheit, the egg will yield a female. Although the mother doesn’t incubate the eggs, she does stay close by to guard them from predators, and will continue to protect them for the first two years of their life.
The anatomy of the crocodile makes them a ferocious predator. They are capable of feeding on animals as large as the Cape buffalo and, similar to birds, they have a 4-chambered heart that allows for highly oxygenated blood to pass through, enabling them to stay under water for up to two hours in extreme circumstances.
Their exothermic or cold-blooded metabolism allows them to go for very long periods of time without food. In fact, in the Mara river of Kenya, crocodiles are thought to eat once a year when the wildebeest migration comes through. When crocodiles do eat, they can eat half their body weight in one meal.
During the 1960s, the Nile crocodile faced extinction in many areas of Africa due to hunting and poaching for their skins. But, with the development of a sustainable crocodile farming industry, their numbers have thrived. So, be careful next time you dangle your toes in the water.
