Salt Water Crocodiles
Some Interesting Facts About Salt Water Crocodiles
Estuarine or Salt water crocodiles are the largest of all living reptiles. They are found in similar habitats throughout Northern Australia and Southeast Asia. In Australia, they call them “salties”.
Adult salt water crocodiles can grow up to nineteen feet in length, and can weigh from 1400 to 2500 pounds. The females, as is true with other species, are smaller than the males. Typical females measure about seven to ten feet in length. The salty doesn't have as many armor plates on its neck as other crocodilians, and it has a broader body than most other crocodiles. Sometimes this has caused people to mistake them for alligators, but they are definitely crocodiles.
The largest size that these crocodiles can reach is a debatable subject. The longest ever measured and verified was twenty feet long snout-to-tail. This was the measurement of the skin of a deceased crocodile, and since the skins generally shrink, it is estimated that this croc's length was actually twenty-one feet. The Guinness book has the longest male salty listed at twenty-three feet and weighing 3000 pounds. Their jaws, like those of all Crocodylians, are very powerful. Various experts and naturalists have measured the bite force of separate specimens of salt water crocodiles as ranging from 3900 pounds to 5000 pounds.
There has been some habitat restoration done recently and poaching has been reduced, so the salt water crocodiles are making a bit of a comeback in numbers. But their numbers are very depleted in many of the areas where they are found. In Thailand, they are nearly extinct, as they are in Vietnam. They have only been seen in one area of Bangladesh in recent years. Although they were once quite common in the Mekong Delta, they disappeared from that area in the 1980's. So the future of the species in Southeastern Asia is looking very grim. But the species probably will not be in danger of global extinction, since they are spread over so many other areas of the world.
Salt water crocodiles once could be found as far west as the eastern coast of Africa, in the Seychelles Islands. Originally, it was thought that these were Nile crocodiles, but they were proven later to be salt water crocs. They usually spend the warm and wet season in swamps and rivers that are composed of fresh water. Then during the dry season, they move downstream and can sometimes be found traveling very far out at sea.
Crocodiles fight fiercely among themselves for territorial waters, with the dominant males usually found in the prime parts of fresh water streams and creeks. Salties have a much wider range than many crocs, and they can swim at 15-18 mph in short bursts.