Maybe one of the most controversial animals on earth is a crocodile. Someone considers it terrible and bloodthirsty, someone thinks it is useful, and some are completely sure that these reptiles are the real descendants of dinosaurs living in our time. We all know interesting facts about crocodiles that are hard to believe. Let's figure out where the truth is here, and where is the fiction.
Who is a crocodile?
Crocodile is a carnivorous carnivorous aquatic reptile. It lives in a tropical and subtropical climate. It is possible to meet them on all continents except Europe and Antarctica. Most of the life of a crocodile takes place in water. They love warm muddy ponds, slow-flowing rivers, lakes, swamps. All that crocodiles are able to get is good for lunch. And prey may be different - this is a small fish from ponds, and large mammals that come to the watering hole. The life expectancy of crocodiles reaches 100 years. They begin to breed at the age of 6–8 years.
Serpentologist is a very interesting profession. People of this specialty know everything about crocodiles and other reptiles. It is their task to study the varieties of these dangerous animals.
The most common types of crocodiles
Nowadays, 23 species of crocodiles live in rivers and lakes. All of them are divided into three families:
- Crocodile - the largest family. It consists of 14 species of these amphibian reptiles. It is to this family that the well-known Nile crocodile belongs to all. Interesting facts and horror stories about crocodiles living in the largest river in Africa will scare even daredevils.
- Alligator. This family includes two types of alligators and six types of caymanas. In fact, alligators are different from crocodiles and caimans, although many do not see the difference.
- Gavialovye. In the composition of this family there is only one species - the Gangan gavial.
What is dangerous crocodile?
Is it true that crocodiles need to be wary? Are they as dangerous as they look? Or, maybe, “fear has big eyes,” and all the terrible stories about these reptiles are fiction?
In fact, a crocodile is a strong animal with huge teeth and a lightning-fast reaction, but it does not specifically hunt people. These reptiles can only harm those who invade their territory. Their attacks are often defensive. All about crocodiles, with regard to their bloodthirstiness and danger to humans, is exaggerated at times, but it still makes sense. You need to be extremely careful when communicating with them, especially if such communication does not take place on your territory.
Interesting facts about crocodiles
The appearance, menacing, and danger of these reptiles has always been of great interest. These amphibians have many amazing features:
- Unexpectedly, crocodiles can climb trees. Zoologists often noticed them on tree branches. Moreover, they can climb to a height of 2.5 m.
- Legend has it that a crocodile, when eating a person, cries, feeling guilty. This is partly true - you can see the tears of a crocodile, but they only appear when he eats any meat, and are associated not with an awakened conscience, but with a physiological peculiarity. Thus, excess salts are eliminated from the reptilian organism.
- Crocodile has 24 teeth. They change throughout life. Instead of a lost tooth, a new one necessarily grows, and this can be repeated many times.
- A crocodile can jump out of the water up to two meters high.
- Often you can see reptiles lying on the shore with a terrifyingly open mouth. This is done to cool the body.
- Crocodylus porosus is the largest crocodile. The length of his body reaches 7 meters, and weight - 1 ton. You can meet him in the northern part of the Australian continent and in India.
- Newborn crocodiles are easy prey. 99% of them are eaten by adults of their own species and other predatory animals.
The most common crocodile myths
Not always interesting facts about crocodiles are true. It happens that the widespread information about one or another feature of these reptiles is simply fictitious.
There is an opinion that birds, trying to find food, use their sharp beaks to clean the crocodile's teeth from food debris. In fact, in the wild, such a symbiosis was not noticed, and the information that many thought was true turned out to be fiction.
Another fiction concerns the crocodile language. It is believed that these reptiles simply do not. As you might have guessed, this is not true. Each crocodile has a language, also very large. It’s just that these reptiles cannot stick it out. This is due to the anatomical feature: the tongue is attached along the entire length of the lower jaw of the crocodile. That's what this reptile is deprived of is its lips. They are indeed absent from the crocodile, so it cannot completely close its mouth and sharp teeth are always in sight.
Anyone who believes that crocodiles run fast is also mistaken. The body structure of this reptile simply does not make it possible to develop a speed of more than 10 km / h.
Crocodiles on TV
Interesting facts about crocodiles (of course, fictional) can also be found from cartoons.
Perhaps the most famous crocodile "from the TV" is considered to be Gena. That very friend Cheburashka. This is a kind and shy crocodile, which is impossible to imagine without his beloved accordion. With his songs, he cheers up more than one generation of children.
Recently, a whole computer game appeared, dedicated to a sweet and benevolent crocodile - “Swampy Crocodile”. He is very clean and always tries to wash himself well. This crocodile became so popular that a multi-part animated series of the same name was shot about it.
In the well-known verses of Korney Chukovsky, the crocodile remains that villain, for he swallowed the sun. But as in any fairy tale, everything ended well. This story also deserves to be filmed about her cartoon.
Horrors about crocodiles are most often shown in feature films. Reptiles there are not so kind and friendly. There are many films whose main character is a crocodile. You will not see interesting facts for children in them, but for adults, viewing promises to be entertaining. "Predatory waters", "Lake of Fear", "Alligator" - these are just some of the many horror films about crocodiles.