Crocodiles live long enough to gain weight, which will allow them to become the top of the food web in their ecosystems. A ton or a little more - isn’t this enough to fight a buffalo, elephant or human? A deadly rotational jerk - and the crocodile not only grabbed the victim, but also tore off her head.
Large crocodiles
Among these animals there are amazing species, they not only reach enormous size and weight by the standards of predators, but they also live very long - more than a hundred years. To date, it is believed that the combed - a giant crocodile, the Nile - a little less, and the Orokin crocodile and false gavial - take third place. Although the size of the caught males in recent years is almost the same.
All of these species of large crocodiles are cannibals. They feed on everything that they can grab, watch, drag under water. Nile and marsh can themselves become prey of the combed (marine), therefore they prefer to live where there is no need to share the territory with the combed.
Description of the giant crocodile - combed
Various sources call this monster in different ways: Indo-Pacific crocodile, combed, estuarine, Crocodylus porosus, sea crocodile. It is the largest reptile in the world, ranking at the top of the food chain. The length of males can be up to seven meters, but today's individuals rarely reach a size of 5 meters. Females are much smaller, their maximum length reaches only three meters. The weight, respectively, of males is maximum from a ton to two, females - up to 150 kg.
For comparison: the weight of the Nile crocodile and its dimensions are slightly less than that of the combed and, in males, they are 4 meters and weighs more than 400 kg.
The head of the combed crocodile is very long and wide: the maximum known ratio of length to base width is 76 cm to 48 cm.
In the center of the muzzle, two ridges descend down to the snout from the eyes, hence the name is combed.
This type of crocodile begins a journey into life, having only 28 centimeters in length and 71 grams of weight. A year later, it weighs two and a half kilograms, and the length is one meter.
Crocodylus porosus has pronounced sexual dimorphism. Males are considered sexually mature at 16 years old with a length of 3 meters, females - a little earlier - at 12-14 years old, with a length of 2.0-2.1 meters.
The weight of a giant crocodile, however, as with all other species, does not increase linearly, but exponentially: a male 6 meters long will weigh twice as much as a five-meter one. With age, crocodiles add less and less in length, although weight can increase. It depends on the habitat (food availability). Dominant males weigh more than ordinary ones, as they have the ability to eat in a larger area.
Habitat
A combed crocodile is perhaps the only one of all the others when choosing a habitat that travels for a long time in sea water. Crocodiles tagged with radio beacons sailed up to 400-500 km in a few weeks. Moreover, they use the strength of the current, simply drifting along it, while maintaining energy. According to observations, marine crocodiles can interrupt swimming, waiting for a passing course up to several days.
According to the descriptions given in the sources, the marine crocodile is less social than other species, more intolerant of its male relatives, protecting females from them, and is much more aggressive.
In the daytime, the reptile takes more sun baths and bathes in water. A giant crocodile hunts at night.
Although the crocodile is monstrously huge, it cannot be called clumsy: it is furiously active and fast, literally flies out of the water during an attack on the victim. When swimming can reach speeds of up to 29 km per hour, however, not over very long distances. The usual speed when cruising between islands, banks, along rivers is up to five kilometers per hour. If the crocodile is in shallow water, where he can swim and run, he will not leave the victim a chance of salvation, no matter how fast it is.
One can judge the development of the brain of a giant crocodile with its relatively small size (only 0.05% by weight) by how it literally studies the places of entry into the water and migration paths depending on the season of its future victims.
How to hunt combed crocodiles
The techniques used by Crocodylus porosus for hunting are similar to all other species. Usually they circle silently around the intended victim, then they attack it with a sharp jerk, either immediately swallowing, or dragging them under water to sink or crush. On land, unlike the Nile crocodile, the crested ones were not recorded on the hunt, although they are known for tapping macaques with their tail from the land and “cutting” reptiles, lizards, birds, and mammals sitting on them from lowered branches.
A feature of the hunting of sea crocodiles (as well as others) is that their teeth can only grab and compress the prey, but not bite it. Crocodiles simply swallow small animals and fish, and deal with the large one differently - literally “unscrewing” the pieces from it, rotating around its axis or in huge jerks.
Features of the structure of the jaws of a crocodile
When captured, the jaw shrinks as much as it can not shrink in any known animal. Usually, the compression force of a crocodile is compared with a registered spotted hyena bite - 16 kilo Newtons versus 4.5.
It is proved that this is the result of the anatomical structure of the jaws of a crocodile. As a result of evolution, the muscles for closing the jaw developed unusually in crocodiles, they occupy a lot of space and are hard as a stone. But the muscles for opening are weak and small, so after capturing live crocodiles, the muzzle is pulled together with just a few layers of duct tape.
