CROCODILIANS 
(Alligators, Caymans, Crocodiles and Gavials) 
The rivers, swamps and marshes of the tropical world are the homes of the 
crocodilians, longest of living reptiles, except possibly certain specimens 
of the regal python. In the tropical and subtropical regions their life begins 
and ends — sometimes at the hands of enterprising big game hunters or 
commercially minded men who see the beasts as a source of material for 
sport shoes, bill-folds, belts, luggage and ladies’ handbags. Some, however, 
are spared only to spend their days in idle display for the edification and 
amusement of urban zoo-goers. 
Crocodilians may be divided into twenty-five species, ranging from the 
thirty-foot Indian gavial to the comparatively diminutive Central American 
cayman, four feet long at best. Travelers’ tales of seventy-foot specimens 
should be ignored. There are two species of alligators, seven of caymans, 
fourteen of crocodiles and two of gavials. 
All have been credited with many fictitious attributes, including that 
of being fearsome and dangerous enemies of man. On the whole the croco¬ 
dilians, if unmolested, would rather run away than fight a man. Still, for 
safety’s sake, it must be borne in mind that there are some man-eating 
crocodilians which need little more provocation than a pang of hunger to 
make a meal of a human being. 
Their food is sought both on land and in water, but it is in the latter 
that the crocodilians are most efficient. They are able to float with only 
their eyes and nostrils protruding; a valve shuts off their mouths from their 
throats so that the jaws may be kept open under water. After sighting a 
victim, the crocodilian dives down and noiselessly reappears under its 
prey. If small, the victim is swallowed whole; if the prey is too large for 
that procedure, the crocodilian may clamp the victim with its jaws, lashing 
about until the prey is torn to small bits. In the water the saurians revolve 
rapidly on the long axis of their bodies. 
21 
