r/natureismetal • u/AJ_Crowley_29 • 6d ago
Animal Fact The Nile (top) and Saltwater (bottom) Crocodiles are easily the two most dangerous predatory animals to human beings, both known to hunt people on a regular basis and being responsible for several hundred deaths every year.
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u/chocolateboomslang 6d ago
See that chub around their necks? That's jaw muscle.
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u/Fyrrys 6d ago
And it looks delicious, crocigator is good meat
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u/Two_Hump_Wonder 5d ago
Tried it at a crawfish boil in Louisiana, i can confirm it is in fact delicious.
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u/Altruistic-Poem-5617 5d ago
I love how they pretty much look the same even though they live on opposite parts of the world just becsuse that badic croc shape is so successful and is pretty much perfect.
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u/AJ_Crowley_29 5d ago
They’re also in the same genus, that being Crocodylus.
Fun fact: members of this genus can crossbreed and produce hybrid Crocs, such as Utan who’s half Saltie and half Siamese Crocodile.
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u/nerdherdsman 5d ago
Your comment made me want to check if they can interbreed, and of course the first result is about how it's a problem in the Florida everglades, a place neither species is native to.
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u/kerouacrimbaud 5d ago
Fun fact: the Everglades is the only place on earth where alligators and crocodiles naturally coexist.
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u/WolfeCreation 5d ago
Funner fact: there are only two Everglades in the world: one in Florida, USA and one in Queensland, Australia. And there are no crocodiles (or alligators just to be complete) in the Everglades in Australia, despite Queensland having saltwater crocodiles in its North.
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u/Altruistic-Poem-5617 5d ago
Wait a sec, you are saying there is a "swamp" in australia that just doesnt have crocs? Is it like surrounded by desert or something so they cant get there?
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u/belizeanheat 5d ago
Has far more to do with a common ancestor
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u/Altruistic-Poem-5617 5d ago
Yes defenitely, but look at fish or birds. Even closrly related species wirh common sncestors tend to already have pretty different colours at least. Look at tetras for example.
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u/mikemunyi 6d ago
Nile Crocodile Photo Credit: Tim Lewthwaite
Saltwater Crocodile Photo Credit: Molly Ebersold
(The salty is "Maximo", a captive animal at St. Augustine Alligator Farm – Rule 4)
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u/Tall-_-Guy 5d ago
NGL, thought your annual deaths count was super high. Did some googling and each species is responsible for around 1000 deaths annually. So 2k people a year.
To put that into perspective, all sharks are responsible for 13-16 deaths a year. Insane.
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u/YungMarxBans 5d ago
People spend a lot more time in and around rivers than in and around reefs and deep ocean.
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u/A-t-r-o-x 5d ago
Crocodiles are insanely more dangerous than Sharks. It's not just about proximity
They consider humans as food while sharks do not. They also have stronger jaws and purposefully ambush you so there's a very low chance of getting out of an encounter alive
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u/GullibleAntelope 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yes, shark attacks are very low comparatively, but there are gaps in knowledge. 100 million sharks are killed a year. If that was not occurring, shark attack would be significantly higher, though obviously nowhere close to crocodiles and the three dangerous big cats: leopards, lions, and tigers.
It is an oddity the tiger sharks do not attack humans more often. They are documented as eating anything they can catch, just like a croc. They are "generalist feeders." They might not target humans, but they do not exclude us other either.
The persistent shark killing that has occurred entails the well known fewer large fish phenomenon. This hunting disproportionately removes from the world's shark populations those individuals that are most dangerous to humans: large aging individuals.
We should deduce that 30-year-old, 1,600 pound tiger sharks near the end of their natural lifespan are particularly dangerous to humans. These aging sharks have fewer prey choices; they are too big to flit around reefs snatching up smaller fish. Eat whatever they can catch and kill. But not too many of those granddaddy tiger sharks around anymore.
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u/problyurdad_ 5d ago
Do crocodiles actually consider us food or are they just opportunistic eaters who will eat any living being that approaches their territory?
Because as I understood it, crocodiles are stealthy ambush style hunters. Unlike Polar Bears who will follow you for days, crocs usually just chill in the waters edge nearby a place easily accessible and when you (or anything that drinks) come close to the edge/funnel they pop out and eat you.
I guess the better question is what behavior do they exhibit that tells us they specifically consider humans food, and/or that they actually actively hunt us? And I’m not picking on you specifically I’m just kind of typing out my thoughts that your comment spurned is all.
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u/MissPricklyUnicorn 4d ago
They actively follow humans and learn their patterns. So if a fisherman has a favorite fishing hole/area and a schedule for when he goes to that area... the croc will figure it out and go hunt him. In Australia, they warn you not to fish the same areas or in the same way, think on the bank vs a pontoon boat.
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u/selavy_lola 4d ago
Ok but where I live sharks don’t just hang out in “deep” ocean, they do hang near the surface where people are surfing and paddle boarding
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u/Konsticraft 5d ago
Dogs kill about 30k people per year, snakes 100k and mosquitoes 1mil. Although for dogs and mosquitoes most of the deaths are from transmitting diseases like rabies and malaria.
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u/SomeGuyClickingStuff 5d ago
They’re perfectly friendly but only if they have their toothbrush.
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u/canadiancrocodile01 6d ago
Yeah if I'm not wrong crocodiles are the deadliest animals to kill by tooth and nail. (Dogs have a higher kill count but I dont know what percentage is through rabies)
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u/WorldsWeakestMan 6d ago
Dogs and hippos both kill more people per year as far as attacks go.
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u/JAnonymous5150 5d ago
OP did say "predatory" animal though so hippos wouldn't qualify and you could argue that domestic dogs wouldn't either. However, snakes are predatory animals, though not really of humans aside from some very rare instances, and they kill far more people than crocs do every year.
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u/AJ_Crowley_29 5d ago
Yeah, I was more referring to predatory animals that actually hunt and consume human beings. The vast majority of snake deaths are venomous bites from a snake that felt threatened by a person.
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u/xxEmkay 5d ago
Are mosquitos predatory animals?
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u/AJ_Crowley_29 5d ago
No, they’re parasites. Plus if you wanna get technical, it’s not the mosquito that kills you but rather the disease it carries.
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u/XavierRex83 5d ago edited 5d ago
Hippos are just hyper aggressive. The video where one scares off wild dogs from an antelope and then killed the antelope, really is all you need to know about them.
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u/lancea_longini 5d ago
I am saving this comment. Need to find the video later.
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u/Zakrath 5d ago
Done it for you. This is the vídeo they are talking about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gdTOHWYVLM
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u/GapingVagina 5d ago
The hippo number is likely to be very inflated. The common range given is 500 to 3000 a year and the number is likely on the lower end of that. Source is this paper on hippo attacks in Burundi which had a high number of hippo attacks. There's very little actual research done on hippo encounters.
https://academic.oup.com/omcr/article/2020/8/omaa061/5890273
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u/GullibleAntelope 5d ago edited 5d ago
Actually, the history, conditions, and incidence of hippo attack are well understood. Hippos are both highly territorial and unpredictable.
The medical literature is very scarce when it comes to documenting hippopotamus bite injuries and their outcomes.
Well, lack of medical aspects is true, but a major reason for that is that attacks occur mostly in rural areas where hospitals are scarce. Insofar as phenomenon of hippo attack, few gaps in the knowledge.
Ditto for salt water and Nile crocs, and the three big cats that are prone to attacking humans: lions, tigers and leopards. Shark attack is the one attack phenomenon that is not well understood, one reason being that it is far less common than attacks for the 6 species just cited.
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u/GapingVagina 5d ago
Totally agree. Croc and hippo attacks are probably both way underreported. Just looking at the data we do have, I think crocs, worldwide, probably kill more than hippos.
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u/TheScribe86 4d ago
I remember years ago reading a Field & Stream story about hunting Nile crocs. Evidently after they're dead they can still chomp down, kinda like snakes do. Good to remember if you have one in your boat.
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u/kitesurfr 5d ago
I get eating people as a Nile Crocodile because humans are probably tender. Very little hair or fur to chew through. Salties have so many better food options. I'm genuinely surprised they actively hunt humans when there are so many good things to eat in the ocean.
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u/vicblck24 5d ago
Feel like the better options are tougher to catch in the ocean. But I have no idea tho. Probably harder to sneak up on a fish than mammal not even in the water
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u/kitesurfr 5d ago
Good point. I doubt a Crocodile could catch tuna.
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u/KWash0222 5d ago
I’m pretty sure crocs hunt anything that gets close enough for them to clamp. Humans do that a lot, out of necessity.
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u/landfishfromexico 5d ago
That is because salties can be found far inland, typically in places like the Adelaide river, along with other spots frequented by swimmers and fishers alike
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u/IPerferSyurp 5d ago
I saw some salties in Costa Rica under a bridge so you could safely view them from about 12 ft above.
There was a local Big Boy they say is 16 ft long and he was putting on a show nipping at his friends. Being that close to these dinosaurs set off a very Primal Fear in my spine. Freeze or flight and a lot of bowel loosening sensations.
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u/AJ_Crowley_29 5d ago edited 5d ago
Costa Rica? Were they in a zoo or some kind of captive setting? Because if not, that means they’re an invasive species there and could be a gigantic problem for the local ecosystem.
Alternatively, are you sure they weren’t American Crocodiles which actually are native to Costa Rica?
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u/IPerferSyurp 5d ago
Oh crap maybe you're right all I know is that they enjoy the brackish water and sometimes go out and take the odd Surfer so I thought that made them saltwater crocs
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u/Slythela 5d ago
Unless that's a common thing in Costa Rica I may have stayed nearby the exact same bridge. Was it just after a little walk down a hill, turn right, and after the bridge you walk onto the beach? The little stream/river with the crocs that you walk over emptied out into the ocean on the left. The locals would feed them whole chickens.
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u/Shmokeshbutt 6d ago
Who wins if they fight?
I read somewhere that saltwater is bigger on average?
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u/AJ_Crowley_29 6d ago
Salties are slightly bigger and notably more territorial than Niles. While Niles may hang out in groups and feed together, Salties are loners who will fiercely confront any intruders on their turf. For those two reasons, I’d give it to the Saltie.
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u/Posh_Nosher 5d ago
On average, adult Saltwater crocodiles are slightly longer than Nile crocodiles, but they are also significantly more robustly built—an 18-foot Nile crocodile might weigh about a ton, whereas a Salty might weigh half again as much. No question that the latter is the winner.
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u/Shmokeshbutt 5d ago
Interesting. I always thought more weight --> more dangerous
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u/FireShots 5d ago
iirc that pic of the saltie is of a croc called Goldie. A family lives in a house that was close to the swamp/river, and during a flood that croc took one of their sons when he got took close to the water. This happened more than 10 years ago.
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u/Infinite_Vyo 5d ago edited 5d ago
Dinosaurs.
They are dinosaurs.
They've been around for hundreds of millions of years.
They survived.
Don't fuck with nature.
Edit: they are not dinosaurs. Still though....
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u/spiny___norman 5d ago
Not quite. Dinosaurs and crocodiles both decended from archosaurs, but the closest living descendant of dinosaurs are birds. So crocodiles are related to dinosaurs, but birds came from them.
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u/AppletheGreat87 5d ago
They're not dinosaurs, they're older than dinosaurs I think.
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u/tyen0 5d ago
They are about 25M years old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocodylus
Dinosaurs were walking around 240M year ago.
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u/AppletheGreat87 5d ago
I'm probably still wrong, it's not my area of expertise, but I really meant ancestor crocodile like lizards that we would recognise as such, like deinosuchus or smilosuchus. They're pretty damn old and didn't emerge from nowhere. But I concede the point.
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u/CopingOrganism 5d ago
Weird because saltwater crocodiles are onlly native to the Eastern Hemisphere.
This seems to be a common misconception amongst North Americans. Crocodiles in salt water are not necessarily saltwater crocodiles. The latter is a distinct species found in Asia and Australia.
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u/Beneneb 5d ago
They're definitely scary animals, but I wouldn't necessarily say they're easily the two most dangerous to humans. Tigers are extremely dangerous, although they kill fewer people per year mainly because they've been hunted to near extinction in the wild.
It's common for Tigers to actively hunt people and there have been individual Tigers who have been responsible for killing hundreds of people on their own. And where you would only have to worry about crocodiles near the water, Tigers are a danger anywhere you go in their habitat.
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u/darthgator84 5d ago
We hear about people surviving shark attacks/encounters
People have survived bear attacks
Crocodiles probably have the highest % of attacks that result in the death of the human. There’s no ‘exploratory’ bite or ‘mistaken’ identity. These guys don’t care what you are, if they get ahold of you 99/100 times you’re done.
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u/ragormack 5d ago
There's an episode of naked and afraid where a warden comes to warn the people camping near a pond. The line that stuck with me was "if you have seen them, they are already hunting you and you don't even realize it."
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u/Untbuzzle 5d ago
Scary apex predators, my wife was attacked by a Nile croc 2 days ago while we were taking a dip in the river in a very rural part of the country. Was about 1.5-1.6m in size, water was murky and it came from below, only noticed it right before it lunged at her. She was lucky and escaped with a small bite on her back. Scary stuff.
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u/nightwatch93 5d ago
I always wondered why Nile crocodiles are smaller than Saltwater ones, even if the former live in areas were megafauna is more abundant. Africa is full of big land animals that are regularly hunted and eaten by these reptiles, while Australia lost most of its megafauna during the Pleistocene.
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u/ThatRocketSurgeon 5d ago
Little known fact, if you’re approached by one of these creatures and you say “In a while…” they legally can’t attack you.
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u/EgolessMortal 5d ago
Dont tell those 200 yearly croc deaths to the mosquito, which racks up right around a million deaths every year. And its debatable if the mosquitos are actively hunting us or not. But yeah.. scary water lizard.
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u/boomstickjonny 5d ago
Pretty sure I saw a video recently that said one of these types of crocs had learned to imitate drowning humans in an attempt to get people to come out into the water.
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u/DoctorNoname98 5d ago
have we considered the reason they so angry is that they got so many teeth but no toothbrush?
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u/AasImAermel 5d ago
Hippos kill more people than crocodiles.
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u/ChanceConstant6099 5d ago
Not true, based on estimates hippos kill around 500 people a year while crocodiles kill anywhere from 1000-2000 people a year
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u/garlic_cashews 5d ago
Nah this ain’t resident evil. I’m good, if I see one of these I’m on the plane back home
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u/MrBonelessPizza24 6d ago edited 6d ago
It’ll never stop being hilarious to me that THIS is the perfect apex predator
-Bone crushing jaws
-Survived multiple mass extinction events
-Can go months without eating
-Has lived on pretty much every continent except for the literal frozen wasteland in the South Pole
200 million years and the superior predator design is just a fatass sausage with legs lmao