Crocodiles belong to the Crocodylidae family. Crocodiles
can be traced back to the Cretaceous period and the Triassic
period. This family also includes alligators and caimans.
Crocodiles are huge aquatic reptiles and live in fresh water
bodies such as rivers, wetlands, lakes and brackish water. They
are found in America, Africa, Australia and Asia. Crocodiles are
often confused with alligators. Crocodiles have a V shaped head
and alligators have a U shaped head.
Crocodiles are recommended for those who have a past experience
with dangerous exotic pets. They are certainly not advisable for
beginners and even intermediate pet owners. People that are
interested in reptiles can opt for agamid, geckos, skinks, and
small snakes. Crocodiles are for extremely experienced
hobbyists. They are extremely difficult to handle, housed and
the expenses just keep on increasing. Even small juvenile
crocodilians become hard to handle after one year. As they grow
older, they become more dangerous and stronger. It is only after
this, the owners realize the harsh truth and they release the
crocodile illegally in the wild. The matter becomes even worse,
because since the pet gets habituated of human company, it will
loose fear and will become more confident and attack people more
easily and frequently.
These reptiles are often underestimated, but they are very
strong and fast. Lots of practice should be done before handling
a crocodile. In fact, the larger the crocodile, the more the
number of people required for handling it. If untrained or
inexperienced team handles a crocodile, they are prone to
getting serious injuries and might even die on the spot. No
amount of training can tame the crocodile. Most of the owners
are in delusion in this regard. A lot of hard work and many
years of time would have be invested to tame a crocodile.
Crocodiles have a streamline body, which facilitates swimming.
While swimming, they tuck their limbs to the side of their
bodies, which help them to swim even faster as that decreases
the water resistance. Their webbed feet help them to make fast
and sudden turns. Muscles that are involved in closing the jaw
are so powerful that the jaw can shut with a pressure of three
thousand pounds per square inch. Their teeth are very sharp
which they use to tear flesh of their prey. They also have very
sharp claws.
But the good thing is that the muscles that are used to open the
jaws are extremely weak. Incase of an attack, the victims should
hold the jaw and shouldn’t allow the crocodile to open its jaw.
That is the reason why, when the crocodile is being transported,
the jaws are kept shut with big rubber bands made out of
automobile inner tubes. The lateral movement of the neck is
restricted by nature in this reptile, so when a human faces an
attack on land, he can save himself by getting behind a small
tree with the crocodile at the other side.
Crocodiles eat both vertebrates and invertebrates. For example,
they eat mammals, reptiles, fishes, crustacean and mollusks.
They can live up to minimum of thirty years and can even cross
hundred years of age. Owners should be certainly aware of this
fact and make preparations in advance because there is larger
possibility that the pet outlives the owner. Crocodiles can grow
from five feet to six feet and can weigh nearly three thousand
pounds. At birth they measure twenty centimeters only. This is
also one of the factors, which tempts owners to keep them as pet
and when they begin to grow, the owner panics and starts
thinking of abandoning them.