Zambian Crocodiles
Crocodiles are wild and unpredictable. One moment a croc could be sleeping on a riverbank basking in the sun or floating like a log on water. The next moment the reptile could be diving into water with a huge splash. Yet again, and crocs enjoy this, slithering stealthily into water. So the crocodile’s apparent docility is deceitful. The largest Zambian crocodile is the Nile crocodile measuring 3 metres. In Zambia it’s generally found in the Luangwa River.
At Lake Kariba there crocodile farms where they are bread, fed, and culled for their skins. These skins are very expensive and used for shoes and ladies bags. A full-grown croc has a skin that will bounce a bullet thus young crocodiles are left to provide for human pleasures. Their skins are soft enough and suitable for human amusement; shoes and bags…and perhaps car seats, etc.
Crocodiles are ubiquitous and found virtually in all Zambian rivers be it small or large. It’s for this accident of nature that they are the number 2 threat to human life for people who live near rivers. Hippos are the number one threat and they are the biggest killer of humans in Africa.
Nile Crocodiles have changed little in 65 million years. In contrast lizards, they have a “high walk.” They swim with their tails, but their hind feet are webbed and can be used to submerge quickly.
Crocodiles are social creatures. The females of some species protect not only their hatchling young but offspring from the previous year. Nile Crocodiles produce at least six different vocal signals and both male and female Nile Crocodiles maintain territories, especially during breeding season.
Nile Crocodiles were once widely distributed over Africa south of the Sahara and on offshore islands but nowadays they have become endangered because of habitat destruction and the value of their leather.
Male crocodiles defend their territories during breeding season by roaring and constantly patrolling the borders. The female digs a hole in soft soil after mating, which occurs in the water. She lays about 50 eggs and covers them with soil and then she stands guard for three months while the eggs develop in the underground nest.
When the hatchling are ready to hatch, they call to their mother from inside the eggs. She then excavates the nest and carries the babies in her huge jaws to the safety of water and guard them for another six months. Nile crocodiles They have a lifespan of 70 to 100 years.
Their diet varies with age. The young ones eat spiders, frogs, insects, snakes, lizards and other small vertebrates. The older offspring and adults eat fish while larger, mature Nile crocodiles capture zebras, antelope, wart hogs, large domestic animals and human beings. Crocodiles grab the large mammals at the edge of the water, drag them underwater and drown them.
