Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
channels with reed beds on both sides, and the occasional sandbank. We drifted silently past
crocodiles, monitor lizards, snakes and birds basking in the morning sun, but stayed away from
the hippos, rifles at the ready.
We would frequently see the three known local man-eating crocodiles, mostly with them
casting an evil beady eye toward us as they floated like logs. But on occasion we would drift
down on them when they were out on sandbanks. One we measured at 14 feet, which was large
for the area but the largest monster killed in Lake Victoria measured 22 feet. Another
measuring 22 feet was shot by Wilmot in Botswana but it was unusually thin and long. One of
18'6” was taken in Zimbabwe and Don Heath shot one in the sea off the Zambezi Delta that
measured 20'9” in 2006. The largest Nile crocodile in the Congo measured 21 feet and a
couple of years ago some kayakers were paddling down the rapids on the Congo river and one
of these monsters reached up and pulled a kayaker out of his kayak, never to be seen again.
This also happened to a physician kayaking on the Limpopo River before his family in 2006.
Half of crocodile victims are killed and the majority of the rest lose a limb. Data across
southern Africa shows that about 12 to 15 people are killed annually in Lake Kariba, 17 or so
in Lake Victoria annually, 700 in Malawi annually, and in Lake Tanganyika one crocodile has
been blamed for killing 300 people. Part of this is that the fish populations are declining and
increased population of people are using the shores more often as global temperatures rise.
Crocodiles have some 70 teeth that move from the back to the front, replacing older ones as
they break, and can exert some 10 tons per inch of pressure. They are quite territorial and will
defend their area and females against other crocodiles. Just like alligators they vibrate their
bodies to woo females and once from the bridge across the Olifant's River in the Kruger Park I
watched one trying to charm the ladies producing a string of wavelets. Because of upstream
pollution from mines and agriculture, the Olifant's crocodiles have been dying off in the river
with a type of fatty infiltration on the liver caused by unknown toxins.
Blyde River Canyon Dam on Olifant's River Providing Water for Mines in Palaborwa on
the Lebombo Plain
They are ingesting the toxin by eating Barbel fish which as an apex predator they eat Barbel
fish, apart from mammals, the Barbel concentrate the poison in their bodies. Major efforts are
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