Nile Crocodile Natural History Illustrations and Photographs

Summary: Nile crocodile natural history illustrations and photographs depict strong-clawed, jawed, legged, sighted, tailed apex predators in 44 African countries.

Slow-swimming great white pelicans (Pelicanus onocrotalus) become Nile crocodile prey in the water: Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus); Omo River Valley, southern Ethiopia; Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010, 16:06: Gianfranco Gori, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Nile crocodile natural history illustrations and photographs assemble behavioral patterns, distribution ranges and physical appearances into an analytical, artistic arrangement of the life cycle of one of continental Africa's aggressive apex predators.

Nile crocodile natural history illustrations and photographs broach big-bodied members of the Crocodylidae false gharial and true crocodile family of tropical Africa, America, Asia and Australia. Nile crocodiles convey frequent freshwater and infrequent brackish and saltwater habitat niches through their common name and through the scientific name Crocodylus niloticus ("Nile [River]] crocodile"). The genus name derives from the Greek designation κροκόδειλος (krokódeilos), from the words κρόκη (krókē, "pebble") and δρῖλος (drîlos, "worm"), perhaps to describe stone-loving, tube-like sunbathers.

Nile crocodile natural history illustrations and photographs emphasize Nile crocodile endurance in, despite West African crocodile extirpation from, the Nile River extension southward through Upper Egypt.

The dry season months from August through January furnish Nile crocodile life cycles with nesting season months for fitting 50 to 80 eggs into nest holes.

Physically and sexually mature female Nile crocodiles go without general regimens of carrion and fish to get hard-shelled, 1.76- to 5.64-ounce (50- to 160-gram) eggs underground. Sand-filled holes hold eggs for 80 to 90 days, with temperatures above and below 87.8 degrees Fahrenheit (31 degrees Celsius) respectively generating male- and female-gendered hatchlings. Stay-at-home 8.53-plus-foot- (2.6-plus-meter-) long mothers-to-be and 10.17-plus-foot- (3.1-plus-meter-) long fathers-to-be initiate independence when 10- to 12-inch- (25.4- to 30.48-centimeter-) hatchlings peep from 19.68-inch- (50-centimeter-) deep holes.

Nile crocodile natural history illustrations and photographs sometimes juggle the one- to 24-month in-water and waterside journeys of parents and their one to two annual clutches.

Adults with gray-olive, yellow-bellied bodies and sub-adults with black-, cross-banded brown or green bodies keep to coastal estuaries; freshwater lakes, rivers and swamps; and mangrove swamps.

Seventy- to 100-year-old, 8.2- to 12.79-foot- (2.5- to 3.9-meter-) long, 500.45- to 661.39-pound (227- to 300-kilogram) female bodies look littler than same-aged male Nile crocodile bodies. Seventy- to 100-year-old male Nile crocodiles may manage 1,102.31- to 2,403.4-pound (500- to 1,090-kilogram) weights and measure 11.48 to 18.04 feet (3.5 to 5.5 meters) long. Adults need basking sites and cool waters for nudging body temperatures upward and downward; 164.04 (50-meter) territories from shorelines outward; and sheltered dens from inclement weather.

Nile crocodile natural history illustrations and photographs observe 64- to 68-toothed dentitions: 2 side-projecting, 8 front-projecting, 26 to 28 upper-jaw and 28 to 30 lower-jaw teeth.

Nile crocodile hatchlings prove most vulnerable with egg-breaking, yolk-eating teeth and adults least, with crawl-, run-, walk-friendly clawed, splayed limbs; regrowable teeth; 30-minute swims; two-hour breath-holding.

Nile crocodiles queue up in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt and Equatorial Guinea. Populations likewise reside in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal. Nile crocodile natural history illustrations and photographs show sustainable populations in Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature tags Nile crocodiles, taxonomized in 1768 by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti (Dec. 4, 1735-Feb. 17, 1805), as low-risk for extinction.

Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) range: The Emirr/MapLab, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus); Omo River Valley, southern Ethiopia; Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010, 16:06: Gianfranco Gori, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NileCrocodile--Etiopia-Omo-River-Valley-01.jpg

Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) range: The Emirr/MapLab, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cypron-Range_Crocodylus_niloticus.svg

For further information:

Crocodile Specialist Group. 1996. "Crocodylus niloticus." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 1996: e.T4690A11064465. http:dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.1996.RLTS.T46590A11064465.en
Available @ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/46590/0

Laurenti, Josephi Nicolai. 1768. "LXXXIII. Crocodylus nilotica." Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis Circa Venena et Antidota Reptilium Austriacorum. Viennæ [Vienna, Austria]: Joan. Thomæ. Nob. de Trattnern [Ioannis Thomae nobilis de Trattnern; Johann Thomas von Trattnern).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4210501
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/specimenmedicume00laur#page/53/mode/1up
Available via Göttinger Digitalisierungszentrum @ https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN362231184?tify={%22pages%22:[55],%22view%22:%22scan%22}

Whitaker III, Romulus Earl; and Nikhil Whitaker. "Nile Crocodile." In: Michael Hutchins, James B. Murphy and Neil Schlager, eds. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 7, Reptiles: 186. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2003.