Category Zoology

A gharial can be distinguished by its long, thin snout. It is an Asian crocodilian that lives in clear freshwater river systems, congregating at river bends where the water is deeper. A gharial gets its name from ‘ghara’, a Hindi/Urdu word for pot.

Gharials are not suited for living on land. They spend most of the time in water and generally leave the water only to bask in the sun or to nest. They bask in the sun to regulate their body temperature. Gharials are experts in hunting fish underwater. They have sharp interlocking teeth and long narrow snouts, which meet little resistance in the water. Their snouts contain sensory cells that can detect vibrations in the water, which help them locate their prey. They mainly feed on crustaceans, small fish and frogs.

Gharials do not chew their prey, they swallow it, but they tear apart large fish before swallowing. Young gharials jerk their heads back to manoeuvre fish into their gullets, sliding them in head first.

The Nile crocodile is one of the top predators in the African waters. It is an apex predator with no natural enemy in its range. It is the second-largest crocodilian species in the world. It grows up to a size of five meters and weighs up to 750 kilograms. It can take down anything ranging from a hippo to a human. It also has the reputation of being a man-eater!

Though they are capable of living in saltwater, Nile crocodiles rarely do so. They prefer rivers, freshwater marshes, and mangrove swamps. Though they mainly feed on fish, they catch anything that crosses their path including zebras, small hippos, porcupines, birds, and other crocodiles. They can eat up to half their body weight in a single sitting. Imagine how much a Nile crocodile that weighs 750 kilograms eats in one go!

Like the saltwater crocodile, the Nile crocodile too is an ambush predator. It waits for hours, days, and even weeks for the suitable moment to attack. Even a swift prey is not immune to its attack.

The saltwater crocodile is the Earth’s largest crocodilian species in existence today. It sometimes eats humans as well. Sounds pretty scary, right? Saltwater crocodiles have an enormous range; they populate the brackish and fresh-water regions of eastern India, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia. They are good swimmers and are often noted to swim up to the seas.

Saltwater crocodiles are opportunistic predators; they lurk patiently beneath the surface near the water’s edge, waiting for potential prey to stop for a sip of water. They ambush their prey and then drown or swallow it as a whole. Adult salties feed on crabs, turtles, snakes, birds, buffaloes, wild boars, and monkeys while baby salties usually go for small insects, amphibians, reptiles, crustaceans, and small fish.

A saltwater crocodile is capable of fighting and prevailing over almost any animal that enters its territory, including apex predators like sharks. They have the strongest bite of any living animal!

Aardvarks are ant-eating animals found in Africa. Ant-eating animals are toothless mammals that feed on thousands of ants, termites, and insect larvae on a daily basis. They are nocturnal animals; they dig holes during the day and forage at night.

The most noticeable feature of an aardvark is its long, extended pig-like snout. It is a good swimmer and can swim even in strong currents.

Though they have a poor sense of vision, they have a sharp sense of smell and hearing. An aardvark uses its front claws to pry open hidden insect colonies, and lap up the insects and the larvae with its long sticky tongue. With its strong claws, an aardvark can rapidly open a cement-hard termite mound! Its diet is made up of ants and termites.

At nights, an aardvark travels a distance of 10-30 kilometers in search of food. It moves in a zigzag fashion, occasionally stopping to sniff the ground with its snout.

Its keen hearing warns it of predators as well.

Picture Credit : Google

Quolls look adorable, but don’t let their pink noses and thick, soft fur fool you! Quolls aren’t much like cats at all; they are tree-climbing, den-dwelling marsupials and are skilled hunters.

Quolls are nocturnal; they sleep off most of the day in their dens and actively forage at night. They are carnivorous in nature. While the smaller quolls primarily eat insects, birds, frogs, lizards and fruits, the larger species prefer to eat birds, reptiles, and mammals, including echidnas and possums.

Stalking is the technique used by quolis to hunt. They might leap or pounce on the prey depending on its size. They jump onto larger prey, sinking in their claws and closing their jaws around the neck. If the prey is of a smaller size, they pin it down with their front paws. Remember the Tasmanian Devil that we talked about earlier? Quolls even snatch food from the Tasmanian Devil.

It is interesting to watch a reticulated python catch its prey. It usually hides near a water body and waits for the prey to come. At an opportunistic moment, usually when the prey is busy drinking water, it launches a surprise attack, swiftly ambushing the prey. Therefore, the reticulated python is known as an ambush predator.

An ambush predator is also known as a sit-and-wait predator. Rather than strength, an ambush predator uses strategy to catch prey. The diet of smaller ambush predators is usually made up of small mammals, birds and rodents like rats. The reticulated python however is also known to prey on pigs that weigh more than 60 kilograms.

The reticulated python is one of the heaviest snakes in the world. An average reticulated python grows to a size of five meters and weighs around 160 kilograms. Some are recorded to grow up to nine meters in length. As we already know, it is closely related to the anaconda. It is a non-venomous constrictor usually found in south-eastern Asia, some parts of Bangladesh and Vietnam, and the Indo-Pacific islands.

Picture Credit : Google