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Crocodylus porosus
Threatened due to hunting for it's skin, killing by humans either out of fear or for competition for the same resources (particularly fish), and destruction of mangroves and other coastal forests. The population of this species in Sri lanka may not exceed 300.
Hiyare Wildlife Conservation Center
Spotted on Oct 20, 2013
Submitted on Nov 3, 2013
25 Comments (1–25)
awesome
Sorry to belabor this but it's a great clip nonetheless. See the mugger hatchling at 1:38 http://video.nationalgeographic.com/vide...
Excellent!
Nice Shot Nuwan!!!
Thanks Everyone!
Further to my previous comment, here is a better demonstration of what the neck region of a hatchling/yearling salty looks like http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardfish... Uniformly small scutes behind the platform of the skull...
Great series!!!
Fun fact! Living up to 70 years in the wild and attaining a length of 17 feet (5 meters) and weighing in at up to 1,000 lbs, the saltwater crocodile is Earth’s largest living crocodilian - and, some say, the animal most likely to eat a human. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=...
Awesome series Nuwan, the first 'dragon eye' is spectacular, amazing shot!
Thank you Bhagya :)
last added pic is so cute Nuwan , today we had a discussion about what this fellows size can be as it couldnt understand from the previous pics much.
small fellow is cute wish i got the chance to hold it :-)
Thank you Maria, Al Wood and Scott!
@Scott, great information! i have added few more pics.
Nice series, Nuwan and interesting thread. This is a hatchling and hatchlings of Crocodylus are a lot more similar looking than say yearlings (one-year old juveniles). A one-year old salty is unmistakable. I am unfamiliar with mugger hatchlings. That being said, muggers seem to have 2 pairs of enlarged post occipital scutes (scales behind the skull platform and before the rosette of enlarged scutes on the neck). See http://500px.com/photo/43509070 "Ninety nine" percent of salties have no enlarged p.o. scutes. In fact the scales between the platform and the rosette are typically uniformly small. It makes for a very attractive croc. See top hatching on http://www.arkive.org/saltwater-crocodil... This spotting's second photo's angle makes it look like there are no enlarged scales but the 3rd photo is more ambiguous. Nuwan, it would be nice of you could add the 3rd photo zoomed up on the neck region. :-)
It is a Salty. He's a cutie, great spotting.
Wonderful series, Nuwan!
Thank you Neil!
Cool spotting Nuwan. I really like the 1st picture! Hope you get the ID sorted out. :)
Thanks Sew, i'm not sure either! lets ask from Chamalka or Ranger S Frazier, he knows about crocs very much!
oooooh...scary..but awesome :D Nuwan doen't the muggers possess relatively large four post occipital scales??? I thout that is a feature to distinguish them..I am not sure,just asking for my knowledge... :/
great spotting .....
wow! awesome spotting buddy!!
Thanks again! i was just going to ask how you identified it :-)
saltwater ones have heavy snout with a pair of ridges running from orbit to center of snout.but mugger has relatively broad and heavy snout.fore head concave and ridges infront of eyes are absent.
mugger juveniles have bands on their body while saltwater juveniles have black spots.
Thanks a lot Chamalka! i'll update.
It s saltwater crocodile.(Gata kimbula)