Gangetic gharial - this is a rather large crocodile representing gharial family. The most obvious difference gharial compared to other crocodiles it has a very narrow and long muzzle.
At birth, small gharials do not differ much from ordinary ones. Usually the width of the nose is two to three times the length. However, with age, the gharial's mouth becomes more and more elongated and becomes very narrow.
On gharial photos you can see that inside its mouth there is a row of very long and sharp teeth, growing at a slight angle to make it easier for it to hold and eat prey.
The front of the muzzle of males is greatly expanded; there is something like an appendage on it, consisting entirely of soft tissue. For some reason, this very growth reminds people of an Indian clay pot - ghara. This is what gave the name to the whole genus: Gavial - a spoiled “ghVerdana”.
The body length of male gharials can reach six meters, and the weight sometimes reaches two hundred kilograms, but, despite their impressive size, gharial crocodiles have never attacked a person.
The photo shows a male gharial
Females are much smaller in size - almost half the size of males. The color of the gharial's back is dark green with brown tints, and the belly, on the contrary, is very light, yellowish.
The gharial's legs are very poorly developed, because of this it moves on land with great difficulty and extremely awkwardly and certainly never hunts on it. However, despite this, crocodiles come to the shore quite often - usually this happens in order to warm up in the sun and warm sand or during the breeding season.
The gharial's clumsiness on land is more than sufficiently compensated by its grace and speed of movement in the water. If speed swimming competitions were held among crocodiles, gharials would definitely become contenders for gold.
Features and habitat of the gharial
So Where same lives this amazing and interesting beast - gavial? Gharials inhabit the deep rivers of Hindustan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. They have also been spotted in Myanmar and Bhutan, but their numbers in this area are so small that individuals can literally be counted on one hand. By choosing deep rather than shallow rivers, gharial crocodiles look for a place with the largest number of fish.
Character and lifestyle of the gharial
Gharials live in families - for one male there is a small harem of several females. And, like many crocodiles, gharials are an excellent example of parental dedication.
Particularly different in this case are mothers, who guard their own nests from the very beginning of the mating season and do not leave their children until the babies become completely independent.
Gharials are not very aggressive creatures. However, an exception for them may be situations when fighting for the attention of females during the mating season or dividing up territories. The male’s territory, by the way, is more than extensive - ranging from twelve to twenty kilometers.
Gharial food
As you probably already understood, the gharial is not capable of hunting any large animals. The diet of an adult gharial consists mainly of aquatic animals, birds and small mammals. The young feed on various invertebrates and frogs.
Often human remains, and sometimes even jewelry, are found in the stomachs of killed gharials. But it’s quite simple to explain - these wonderful crocodiles do not hesitate to eat corpses burned or buried in rivers and along their banks.
Reproduction and lifespan of the gharial
Gharials become sexually mature when they are ten years old. Unfortunately, the vast majority (ninety-eight percent) crocodiles gharials dies before even reaching three years of age. The mating season begins in November and ends only at the end of January.
First, males select females for their harem. Skirmishes and battles for the lady often occur. The larger and stronger the male, the more females in his harem. Approximately three to four months pass between fertilization and egg laying.
At this time, the female digs an ideal nest for her babies at a distance of three to five meters from the water’s edge and lays thirty to sixty eggs there. The weight of one egg can reach 160 grams, which is significantly larger than other crocodile relatives. After this, the nest is camouflaged - buried or covered with plant material.
After two and a half months, little gharials are born. The female does not carry the babies into the water, but takes care of them for the first month, teaching them everything necessary for survival. The official life expectancy of gharials is 28 years, but due to poachers, it is almost impossible to achieve this figure.
Pictured are baby gharials
Gharial animals presented in the international red book. Global pollution of rivers, drainage, and destruction of their usual habitats have had such a detrimental effect on their numbers. Every day the supply of food suitable for them is noticeably decreasing, and therefore the number of gharials themselves is inexorably approaching zero.
In addition to natural factors, gharials often become victims of poachers who hunt for growths on the nose of males, as well as for crocodiles’ eggs. Gharial eggs are used to treat certain diseases, and growths from the nose, judging by the legends of local tribes, greatly help men cope with their own potency.
In the seventies of the last century, a government project was adopted in India (and a little later in Nepal itself) on ways and methods of preserving the gharial population.
Thanks to this legislative innovation, several crocodile farms were opened, specializing in raising gharials. Thanks to this action, since then the population of crocodiles has increased almost 20 times.
Special indicators were provided based on the results of work in the Royal Chitavan National Park, where, at the confluence of two rivers - Rapti and Rue - they are trying to maintain ideal conditions for the life and reproduction of the Gangetic gharial and the marsh crocodile. Forecasts for the chances of recovery of this crocodile species are very optimistic.
The gharial crocodile is a very rare species that is in danger of extinction. These crocodiles are listed in the Red Book; hunting and trading of these rare animals is prohibited.
Gharial crocodiles are common on the Malay Island, Kalimantan Island and Sumatra Island. Whether this species of crocodiles has survived in Thailand remains unknown.
Features of the appearance of gharial crocodiles
Gharial crocodiles are relatively large, reaching approximately 5 meters in length, but the average size of adults ranges from 3.5-4 meters.
The gharial crocodile differs from other crocodiles by its narrow and very long snout. Such a long snout allows crocodiles to deftly grab slippery fish. The length of the muzzle exceeds the width of the base by approximately 4.5 times. In the upper jaw there are 20 teeth of almost the same size, they are sharp and thin. Gharial crocodiles live in fresh lakes, rivers and swamps. They feed mainly on fish.
Reproduction of gharial crocodiles
Sexual maturity in these crocodiles occurs at 4.5-6 years, when the body length reaches 2-3 m. Females make nests near water. To do this, they use fallen leaves, collecting them in the form of a mound, the height of which is approximately 60 centimeters. The temperature in the nest is maintained at 28-33 degrees. A gharial crocodile's clutch can contain 20-60 eggs. The number of eggs depends on the age and size of the female.
The female lays eggs during the dry season. Their incubation lasts 2.5-3 months. The babies hatch during the rainy season, thanks to which they quickly get to the water and find suitable areas for life.
It is typical for crocodiles to help their babies during hatching, but this behavior has not been observed in gharial crocodiles. Crocodiles hatch on their own and immediately go into the water.
There is a very high mortality rate among young animals. Clutches of gharial crocodiles are destroyed by large monitor lizards and civet pigs.
Number of gharial crocodiles
There is no specific data on the population size of these crocodiles, but these predators are disappearing everywhere. The main reasons for the degradation of gharial crocodiles is overly active fishing.
People hunt these predators for their valuable skin. Also a huge threat is the destruction of crocodile habitats, which occurs due to cutting forests and cultivating rice fields.
In some places, for example, in Indonesia, young individuals are caught from the wild to raise them on farms, which also causes huge damage to the population.
The population of gharial crocodiles in the area of southern Kalimantan and eastern Sumatra is believed to be in a fairly good situation.
The gharial crocodile is protected by law in Indonesia and Malaysia, but conservation measures are not well controlled. The most favorable situation is observed in protected areas: Pa-dang-Luwai Nature Reserve, Taman Negara National Park and Berbach Nature Reserve.
A more thorough study of the population on the little-studied Indonesian islands is needed. Today there are breeding programs for gharial crocodiles in India, at the Madras Snake Park, at the New York Zoological Park and in Malaysia at a farm in the state of Sarawak.
Pseudogavial and its species position
There is an unresolved question among scientists - whether to classify the pseudogharial into the gharial family, because they are closest to the crocodile family, but there are differences in immunology and biochemistry between the pseudogharial and crocodiles.
This species was named after the naturalist H. Schlegel, originally from Holland, who discovered these animals.
Pseudogavial lives in Indonesia; Kalimantan, Sumatra, Java, as well as in Malaysia and Borneo. They may be found in Sulawesi, Thailand and Vietnam. The habitat of these animals is wetlands and they live in fresh water. Pseudogavials prefer water bodies with a small current; they spend most of their time in burrows on drifting islands of plants.
Pseudogavial is a rare, poorly studied species. These animals are protected and are listed in the Red Book. The approximate number of pseudogharials is 2500 individuals.
The pseudogharial has a characteristic narrow snout, which differs in appearance from that of the gharial. The long shape of the muzzle is a consequence of their diet - pseudogharials eat fish. Studies of the stomachs of pseudogharials have shown that in addition to fish, they also eat insects, mammals and crustaceans. The color of adults and young animals is chocolate brown; there are black spots and stripes on the body and tail. The body length can reach up to 5 meters, but larger individuals are also known.
Sexual maturity in females occurs at a body length of about 2.5-3 meters. They make nests from dry leaves, in which they lay 20-60 eggs, about 100 millimeters in size. They develop in about 90 days. There is a high mortality rate among pseudogharial hatchlings as they become food for reptiles and pigs.
Within the range, pseudogharials are located fragmentarily. These reptiles are in certain protected areas, but these areas are not large.
The number of pseudogharials suffers from the degradation of their natural habitats due to the creation of agricultural plantations. A large number of reptiles die in fishing nets.
In the USA and Europe, there are programs for raising pseudogharials in captivity, but there are no effective measures to restore the numbers of the endangered species, but today work is being done in this direction in Indonesia and Malaysia.
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
(1804-1884). Taxonomists have not decided which family the genus belongs to Tomistoma and the subfamily Tomistominae: true crocodiles, which is established on the basis of morphological characteristics, or gharials - on the basis of molecular genetic methods.
Tomistoma schlegelii (Müller, 1838)
| Taxonomy on Wikispecies | Images on Wikimedia Commons |
|
Range and habitats
Attacks on people
The gharial crocodile has traditionally been considered not a dangerous species to humans due to its narrow snout. But this impression is deceptive, because since he can cope with a large python, wild boar or deer, then he is quite capable of a person. In late 2008, a 4-meter female gharial crocodile attacked and ate a fisherman in central Kalimantan, the first confirmed attack on a human by a crocodile of this species. However, in 2012, at least two more credible fatal gharial crocodile attacks on humans were reported, possibly due to the destruction of their habitats and a decline in the numbers of their natural prey.
Reproduction
Females become sexually mature at a length of 2.5-3 m. To lay eggs, they build nests from dry leaves or peat, up to 60 cm high. A clutch usually contains 20-60 eggs with a diameter of 10 cm. Incubation lasts 90 days. There is no evidence that the female guards the nest or young; Most of the clutches are destroyed by predators - wild pigs and reptiles. Thus, unlike many other crocodiles, the gharial crocodile does not care for its offspring.
Population status and conservation
Rare view. Gharial crocodiles suffer from the degradation of their habitual habitats, in the place of which people create agricultural land, and from irrigation programs. Many animals die in fishing nets. In Europe and the USA, there are programs for growing this species in captivity, but effective measures to restore the numbers of this species are not being taken, although work in this direction is being carried out in Malaysia and Indonesia. Listed in:
- Annex I of the CITES Convention
- IUCN Red Book by category endangered species(Endangered).
The population is estimated at approximately 2,500 individuals.
Gallery
Loading...
