49 Fun Facts About Crocodile

Which is the largest living species of crocodile, and the largest living reptile?

The saltwater crocodile. Males can pass 6 metres and a tonne, and because the species makes long sea journeys it has spread from eastern India across Southeast Asia to northern Australia.

Compared with an alligator's, a crocodile's snout is generally what shape?

V-shaped and narrower. Alligators and caimans have the broad, U-shaped snout instead, which makes the head the quickest way to tell the two families apart from a riverbank.

When a crocodile shuts its mouth, what stays on show that an alligator's closed jaws would hide?

Its lower teeth. A crocodile's jaws are about the same width, so the lower teeth sit outside the upper jaw, led by a large fourth tooth in a notch; an alligator's slot into sockets out of sight.

The armour plates along a crocodile's back are called what?

Osteoderms. These bony plates are laced with blood vessels that help a basking crocodile soak up heat, and they may bank calcium for eggshells.

Before Greeks applied it to Egypt's river giants, the word krokodilos named which small animal?

A lizard. Herodotus wrote that Ionian Greeks named the Egyptian giants after the lizards that lived in their stone walls back home; beyond that, the word's origin is unknown.

What is the spinning move a crocodile uses to twist chunks of meat off large prey called?

The death roll. Crocodile teeth grip but cannot slice, so the animal clamps on and spins its whole body until a mouthful tears free, sometimes while another holds the carcass still.

Alligators and crocodiles live side by side in the wild in which US state?

Florida. Its southern tip is the only place where both live wild: American crocodiles keep to brackish and salty coves at the edge of the alligators' fresh water.

Molecular studies show crocodiles are more closely related to which group than to alligators?

Gharials. DNA places the slender-snouted fish-eaters as the crocodiles' nearest kin, overturning older family trees drawn from anatomy alone.

Why can't a crocodile stick out its tongue?

It is held down by a membrane. Behind the fixed tongue, a flap of skin seals the throat, which is how a crocodile can open its jaws underwater without drowning.

A hatching crocodile breaks its shell with what?

Its egg tooth. The hard point on the tip of the snout is toughened skin rather than a real tooth, and it is absorbed back into the body within weeks of hatching.

Dwarf crocodiles living in Gabon's bat caves have turned which colour, apparently from the guano they wallow in?

Orange. Researchers think the alkaline bat droppings that the cave crocodiles sit in slowly eat away at their skin, staining Africa's smallest crocodile a vivid orange.

Why are a crocodile's eyes, ears and nostrils set on top of its head?

To lurk almost fully submerged. When the crocodile dives right under, its nostrils shut tight.

Lolong, the longest crocodile ever captured alive at 6.17 m, was caught in which country in 2011?

The Philippines. Villagers in Bunawan hunted him for three weeks after he was suspected of killing a fisherman, and it took about 100 people to haul him ashore; he died in captivity in 2013.

What happens when an adult crocodile loses one of its teeth?

A new tooth grows in. A replacement waits beside each working tooth, so lost ones are quickly made good, and one crocodile may get through thousands of teeth in its lifetime.

Outside the crocodilian order, which living animals are crocodiles' closest relatives?

Birds. Crocodilians and birds are the last living archosaurs, the 'ruling reptiles' that also included the dinosaurs, so a crocodile is nearer kin to a pigeon than to a snake.

Crocodiles have no sweat glands, so how do they shed heat?

Through their open mouths. The habit is called mouth gaping and it works much as panting does for a dog, which is why basking crocodiles so often lie with their jaws wide open.

What shape are a crocodile's pupils?

Vertical slits. Like a cat's, they narrow to shield the eye in daylight and open wide after dark, when crocodiles do most of their hunting.

The black speckles on a crocodile's jaws are sensory pits that can detect what?

A single drop hitting the water. The pits pick up the faintest ripples at the surface, letting a crocodile strike at prey or sense an intruder even in total darkness.

In J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, what had the crocodile that stalks Captain Hook swallowed?

A ticking clock. Having eaten Hook's severed hand, the crocodile trails him for the rest, and the tick from its belly is the only warning the captain gets before it arrives.

Stones swallowed by crocodiles, possibly as ballast or to crush food, are called what?

Gastroliths, or 'stomach stones'. Seals and sea lions swallow them as well, and plant-eating birds rely on swallowed grit to grind their food.

Herodotus's tale of a bird picking leeches from crocodiles' mouths is traditionally pinned on which species?

The Egyptian plover. It is still nicknamed the crocodile bird, yet no one has documented it cleaning any crocodile's teeth, so the partnership is most likely a fable.

In Kipling's Just So Stories, a crocodile seizes which curious young animal by the nose and stretches it?

An elephant. The Elephant's Child asks what the crocodile has for dinner, is caught by his stubby nose, and the tug-of-war that follows pulls it out into the first trunk.

Which crocodile weakness lets handlers subdue one with tape or a large rubber band?

Very weak jaw-opening muscles. Nearly all of the jaw muscle is built for clamping shut, so a band cut from a car inner tube is enough to hold a crocodile's mouth closed.

By 2012 estimates, the extinct giant crocodilian Deinosuchus bit nearly twice as hard as which dinosaur?

Tyrannosaurus rex. Scaling up from bites measured on living crocodilians, researchers put an 11-metre Deinosuchus at about 23,100 pounds of force, against a top estimate near 12,800 for the dinosaur.

Australian freshwater crocodiles hold the crocodile land speed record thanks to which unlikely gait?

Galloping. A bounding freshwater crocodile has been clocked at just over 17 km/h for a few dozen metres; most species flee with a slithering 'belly run' instead.

Three tagged crocodiles flown by helicopter up to 411 km along Australia's coast did what?

Returned to their original homes. Satellite tags showed all three swimming back, the farthest-moved rounding Cape York in 20 days, so simply moving a problem crocodile may not keep it away.

Steve Irwin, TV's Crocodile Hunter, grew up at which Queensland wildlife park opened by his parents?

Australia Zoo. Bob and Lyn Irwin opened it in 1970 as a small reptile park at Beerwah, and their son Steve later took it over and gave it the name it has today.

Before bellowing, a male crocodile sends out a rumble too low to hear that makes the water around him do what?

Appear to 'dance'. The deep vibrations set the water's surface shivering, and they carry a long way to attract females and warn off rival males.

What prompts a mother crocodile to dig open her buried nest?

Chirps from the eggs. The babies start calling inside the shell when they are ready to hatch, and the sound is the mother's cue to scrape the nest open and help them out.

What determines the sex of crocodile hatchlings?

Nest temperature. Crocodile embryos have no sex chromosomes: nests at around 32 °C hatch mostly males, while cooler ones produce mostly females.

Crocodiles in East Africa's rivers lie in wait each year for the vast migrating herds of which animal?

Wildebeest. The herds must swim the rivers on their yearly migration, and the waiting crocodiles take so many that the crossings have become a staple of wildlife documentaries.

How does a mother crocodile usually get her hatchlings to the water?

Carries them in her mouth. The same jaws that seize large prey hold the hatchlings gently on the trip to the water, where she goes on guarding them for months.

What is a group of crocodile hatchlings called?

A pod or crèche. The young stay bunched together for months while the mother stands guard, though most still fall to predators before they are grown.

Which two species are considered the most dangerous to humans, killing hundreds a year?

Saltwater and Nile crocodiles. Both grow large enough to treat people as prey, and between them they account for the great majority of crocodile attacks recorded worldwide.

Who played the title role in the 1986 hit comedy Crocodile Dundee?

Paul Hogan. The former Sydney Harbour Bridge rigger co-wrote the film as well, and it became the highest-grossing Australian film of all time.

Which author wrote the picture book The Enormous Crocodile?

Roald Dahl. Quentin Blake drew the story, in which the crocodile disguises himself as a coconut tree to snatch a child, only for the other jungle animals to give him away.

Soldiers of which country were said to have been killed by crocodiles on Burma's Ramree Island in 1945?

Japan. A naturalist who served in Burma told of retreating troops taken in the mangrove swamps, and the tale reached the Guinness Book of Records, though historians have since dismissed it.

Which Caribbean island has a crocodile species found nowhere else in the wild?

Cuba. The Cuban crocodile is unusually at home on land, striding on long, strong legs, and it can leap from the water to snatch animals from overhanging branches.

Ancient Egypt's crocodile-headed god was called what?

Sobek. He was invoked for protection from the dangers of the river, and Herodotus described Egyptians keeping tame sacred crocodiles and embalming them when they died.

Worshippers in ancient Egypt's 'Crocodile City' did what to their sacred tame crocodile?

Decked it in gold. The pampered animal lived in a temple pond, and the Greek geographer Strabo watched priests open its jaws to feed it cake, meat and honeyed wine.

In one old telling behind the phrase 'crocodile tears', the animals weep in order to do what?

Lure their prey. In the older version the crocodile sobs over the victim it is eating; either way the story gave English a phrase for fake grief.

In British English, what is a 'crocodile' of schoolchildren?

A line walking in pairs. The informal British name evokes one long body on dozens of little legs, winding along the pavement behind a teacher.

Which French fashion brand's logo is a crocodile?

Lacoste. Founder René Lacoste was nicknamed 'the Crocodile' by the American press in the 1920s, and he wore the animal embroidered on his blazer years before the company existed.

A famous French clothing logo recalls a 1920s champion nicknamed 'the Crocodile' in which sport?

Tennis. His Davis Cup captain reportedly promised the young Frenchman a crocodile-skin suitcase if he won an important match; he lost the bet, but the American press kept the nickname.

The name of the Indonesian city Surabaya is locally said to join the words for crocodile and which other animal?

Shark. In one local telling, a shark that ruled the sea and a crocodile that ruled the land fought over their territory, and the two still circle each other on the city's emblem.

In one Aztec creation story, the gods made what from the body of Cipactli, a monstrous crocodile?

The earth. Tezcatlipoca used his own foot as bait to draw the ever-hungry monster close, and he and Quetzalcoatl then shaped the land from its body.

Australian crocodile farms usually get their stock by collecting what from the wild?

Eggs. Because they come from wild nests, landowners have a reason to protect crocodile habitat, and the wild population has grown alongside the farms.

What do crocodiles have that alligators possess only in non-functioning form?

Salt glands. Set in the tongue, they get rid of excess salt, which helps crocodiles live in estuaries and cross stretches of sea while alligators keep mostly to fresh water.

How have crocodiles been shown to keep watch while they doze?

With one eye open. The habit suggests that half the brain may stay awake while the other half sleeps, a trick better known from dolphins and seals.