American Crocodiles
Often, tourists will ask me if we are going to see a lot of crocodiles today. I then have to explain to them that we are going to see alligators on our everglades tour today. Crocodiles live in the salt-water estuaries here in South Florida.
Florida is the only place in the world you can find alligators and crocodiles living in the same ecosystem. However, they do not live together. Alligators live in the fresh water of the river of grass. (The Everglades) while the crocodiles live in the brackish, salty waters on the southern tip of Florida in the mangrove forest. Although alligators and crocodiles don't live together they do now and then meet with each other in the salt-water fresh water zone. I have seen alligators and crocodiles sunning next to each other at Flamingo in the Everglades National Park.
I work in the middle of The Everglades where we see alligators. The crocodiles live 40 miles south of where I live and work. Florida is the only place in the world where you can find alligators and crocodiles living in the same ecosystem. However, they do not live together. Alligators live in the fresh water of the river of grass (The Everglades) while the crocodiles live in the brackish, salty waters on the southern tip of Florida in the mangrove forest.
Alligators live in a massive ecosystem with small animals and they don’t need each other to tear larger things apart so, over the centuries they have grown solitary and have become territorial. You might have heard the phrase that there is safety in numbers, well, since alligators don’t care for each other’s company they tend to be afraid of big things (like people). Alligators have great taste buds and can taste everything in their ecosystem. One thing that alligators lack in their diet is salt, people have a lot of salt in their body, so when an alligator grabs onto a human he will start to get crazy and realize how bad we taste and spit us out. Since 1955 only about 9 people have died from alligator bites.
Before I go any further, I must let you know that alligators, crocodiles, caimans and gavials are all crocodilians. Crocodilians can be found in most parts of the world. The American crocodile is not as aggressive as some crocodiles in other parts of the world and also doesn’t grow as big. The largest American crocodile recorded was only 15 feet long.
The crocodile we usually see on television is The Nile crocodile of Africa. They have been known to get 20 feet or larger and yes, The Nile crocodile is a man-eater. The Nile crocodile lives in a massive ecosystem with big animals, so they need other crocodiles to help them to tear things apart. You may have seen a Nile crocodile on TV grab a zebra and drag it into the water and then all of his friends come over and help rip the zebra to shreds. It’s really exciting. Nile crocodiles need each other so they hang out together in large groups. Crocodiles also don’t have very good taste buds so they don’t care what you taste like. If you are walking along any river in Africa you risk being eaten by a crocodile.
Conversely, The Florida crocodile lives on the southern tip of Florida and has had a hard time getting along since modern man has shown up. The American crocodile loves to lay on the beach and rest and sleep all day. Unfortunately for the crocodile, people like the same thing and over the years we have pushed the crocodiles all the way to the southern tip of Florida. There aren’t many beaches on the southern tip of Florida. The southern most end of the state consists mostly of mangrove islands with not much in the way of sandy beaches. Crocodiles need sandy beaches where they can dig into the sand to lay their eggs. This is another reason for the crocodiles having a hard time making it in Florida. People are laying down their beach towels and coolers where the crocodiles once made their nests and laid their eggs.
Folks often ask how many crocodiles are in Florida. Some so-called experts say three or four hundred and some will say closer to five hundred. In my considered opinion, either estimate is an ok guess.
The American crocodile is shy and very elusive. A person has to go looking for crocodiles and will be very lucky to spot one in the wild. As a child, I was lucky enough to live and grow up in The Everglades, but my parents also owned a marina in Key Largo in the Florida Keys. I used to snorkel in the skinny channels that stretched like spider webs through the mangroves off of Card Sound Road. These channels were lined with mangrove roots hanging in the water. I already mentioned that American crocodiles aren’t as aggressive as most crocodiles in other parts of the world. I am surely glad of that.
When I was 14 years old I found out that what many people had told me was true, crocodiles like to sun themselves on the mangrove roots just above the water. At the time, some friends and I were snorkeling just off of Card Sound Road. I usually took a small air tank just in case I needed it in one of the deeper channels. We had been snorkeling for a couple of hours and I returned to our small boat for my air tank so I could stay under longer. I started swimming along the bottom under the mangrove roots, ending up in a shallow channel about 5 feet deep. As I swam towards the surface I looked up through the water and I saw something hanging off of the roots above me.
Realizing it was a crocodile I started to slowly move back and was only 2 or 3 feet down when the crocodile realized I was there. The crocodile panicked and took off, landing in the water and sliding across my legs. I would be lying to you if I said I wasn’t terrified. I shot to the surface and looked around and the crocodile was nowhere to be found. The American crocodile has about the same attitude towards people as the American alligator and I am so glad. I have never heard a report of anyone being attacked by an American crocodile. I tell everyone that the primary difference between alligators and crocodiles is that; alligators may bite people but crocodiles eat people.
The most impressive display of CROCODILIANS that I know of in south Florida is at Everglades Safari Park 305.226.6923 just west of Miami in the glades. Jose Novo, a good friend of mine is an expert on CROCODILIANS and is the owner of “ PREDATOR WORLD” at Everglades Safari Park. Jose has 15 different kinds of CROCODILIANS on display including some brown caimans, spectacle caimans, broad snouted caimans, cuviers dwarf caimans, sneiders dwarf caimans, West African DWARF CROCODILES, East NILE CROCODILES, indo-pacific crocodiles, Johnston fresh water crocodiles, Siamese crocodiles, Cuban crocodiles, moreletti crocodiles and American crocodiles that are as big as 11 feet. If you get a chance, stop by Safari Park and see this awesome display of crocodiles.
Well, I do hope you liked my story this month! THANKS for checking out our award-winning site.
NATURE RULES!!!!!
GATORMAN GLENN W. WILSEY SR.
*This story
or any part of it can not be used or reproduced with out written
permission of the author!
