Category Zoology

    Crocodiles and alligators are called ‘loud-mouths’ because, they are very noisy animals. Even before they hatch, baby crocodiles make calls from within the egg, signaling that hatching time is near. Baby crocodiles have a high pitched yelping cry which they use to call their mother. When an adult crocodile is angry, it makes a long hissing noise or growl.

The sound made by crocodiles and alligators range from coughs and hisses to roars and bellows. Bellowing seems to be contagious. If one animal in a group starts bellowing, others will soon join in and the chorus may go on for up to half an hour! Alligators are believed to recognize each other’s calls, so that they are able to keep track of their friends and foes. 

           Crocodiles can eat just about anything. Their long narrow snouts are rimmed with sharp teeth that can rip apart large pole or snatch anything tasty that happens to float by. A crocodile’s fierce-looking teeth however, are not meant for chewing, They are meant for breaking up crab and turtle shells, or for crushing bones, even hooves and horns, so that they can slide down the crocodile’s throat.

 The crocodile has a sturdy constitution, and doesn’t seem to suffer from any indigestion. It has two chambers in its stomach. The first one grinds up those big chunks of food, while the second one absorbs the nutrients. The crocodile’s digestive system is the most acidic of any animals, and that’s why it can digest bones, shells and hooves.

Crocodiles also have an extraordinary ability to go without food. While other animals would die of starvation, some crocodiles can go for months without eating, and simply pick up where they left off when food becomes available again. This is because it stores about 60% of the energy contained in the food it eats. The energy is stored away as fat in the tail and other places- and this stored energy allows the crocodile to go without food for long periods. 

The period known as the Cretaceous Period ended 65 million years ago with the extinction of the dinosaurs and many, many other prehistoric life forms. No one knows exactly what brought on this disaster. One theory is that a huge asteroid hit the Earth, while another is that there was a rapid increase in volcanic activity. There were severe climate changes, and the Age of the Reptiles came to an end, to be followed by the Age of Mammals.

 Crocodiles and other members of the crocodile family were however, able to survive the disaster. One explanation for their survival is that, crocodiles belong to the community of freshwater vertebrates whose food chain was not so severely affected, since they did not depend on marine plankton or flowering plants that had completely disappeared. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that while huge dinosaurs were wiped off the face of the Earth, the hardy crocodile adjusted to the new conditions on Earth, and survived.

Crocodiles and alligators are very clever at stalking, capturing, and killing their prey. The gharial crocodile, which has a long narrow snout, eats mainly fish, and it captures its prey by a rapid sideways snap of its tooth lined jaw. Alligators and crocodiles with broader snouts also eat fish, but their diets vary according to their age. The young ones eat mainly insects, spiders, crabs and small frogs. They will circle their prey with their bodies and then snap them up with a sideways movement of their jaws.

Adult crocodiles and alligators feed on small mammals, birds, turtles and other reptiles. They will approach their prey stealthily with their bodies submerged under water and only their eyes and tip of their snout above the water. When they are near the prey, they submerge themselves completely… and then rear up with a few strokes of their powerful tails. Their vice like, tooth lined jaws snap shut with an enormous force that kills the smaller prey immediately. Larger animals are dragged underwater, drowned, and then killed and eaten – sometimes over the span of several days. 

 The dragon is a legendary creature that has been revered and worshipped by the Chinese since ancient times. In fact, the Chinese call themselves ‘descendants of the dragon’. They believed that the dragon had supernatural powers, and that it could take on any number of forms. People in Ancient China offered sacrifices to the dragon for favourable weather and a good harvest.

 The dragon is described in ancient texts as having horns like a deer, the head of a camel, a neck like a snake’s, and the body of a crocodile! It was imagined to be a mixture of many animals… possibly of the different animals that were once worshipped in different parts of China. Scholars feel the origin of the dragon lies in the respect that was given to crocodiles and alligators that were plentiful in the Yellow River around 2200 BC. The Chinese used to foretell rain by listening to the call of the alligator, which was also seen as a harbinger of war because of its heavy armour. Did you know that alligator flesh was a prized delicacy at Chinese weddings too? 

Do you know what a mummy is? A mummy is the body of a person or an animal that has been preserved after death by a special process called mummification. The Ancient Egyptian God Sobek was depicted as a crocodile, a mummified crocodile or a man with the head of a crocodile. The Egyptians mummified both infant and mature crocodiles, and even buried crocodile eggs with a dead person in order to enlist the protection of Sobek in the afterlife for that person!