  The Nile crocodile is found throughout
Africa. Large, lizard shaped reptile with four short legs and long muscular tail. The hide
is rough and scaled.
Juvenile Nile crocodiles are dark olive to brown with darker crossbands on tail and body.
Adults are uniformly dark with darker crossbands on tail. Crocodile found throughout
tropical and southern Africa in rivers, freshwater marshes, estuaries, and mangrove
swamps.
Family: Crocodylidae
Name: Crocodylus niloticus
Length: 2.5 to 5.5 m
Weight: up to 1000 kg or more.
Diet Description: up to 70% of the adult diet is fish. Other prey items
may include zebras, hippos, porcupines, pangolins, and migrating wildebeest.
Sexual maturity: relates to size. Males are mature at about 10 feet,
approximately 10 years of age, females at about 6.5 feet, approximately 10 years of age).
Incubation: females nest in November and December on sandy shorelines, dry
stream beds, or riverbanks. A female can lay 25 to 100 eggs, which she covers with sand,
then guards until they hatch 3 months later. When young crocodiles are hatching, either
parent may help them out of the egg by rolling it between their tongue and palate. This
cracks the shell allowing for an easier escape.
Life span: average about 45 years in the wild, may live up to 80 years in
captivity.
Facts: When fish are migrating, crocodile hunt cooperatively by forming a
semi-circle across the river and herding the fish. They then eat the fish that are closest
to them.
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St Lucia Wetlands Park: The Greater St Lucia Wetlands
Park supports the country’s largest population of hippos. An eco-tourism
wonderland of beautiful lakes, swamps, forests and marshlands surrounding the estuary of
Lake St Lucia. This area was declared as one of South Africa’s first ... 
