| I Remembered Today About Crocodiles |
 Pablo Edronkin
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There are strange animals that you can find in different parts of the world, like the Gavial, or Indian crocodile. This animal, know by its scientific name as 'Gaviales gangeticus' lives in the big rivers of India, like the Brahmaputra, very near people, and remember that India is a place packed with human beings who indeed, are quite fond of their sacred rivers. But they have no trouble with their crocodiles, because at least these ones have no trouble with people and do not attack humans. The gavial only eats fish, and has adapted to that diet by modifying its mouth, which resembles one borrowed from a dolphin or even perhaps, a swordfish, except perhaps for the fact that it is covered, of course, with the typical crocodile skin. As we said, it doesn't attack humans; however, it is very capable of scaring you quite thoroughly, for they reach seven metres in length and we are pretty sure that if anyone sees such a thing floating nearby, indifference would not be the word to describe his or her actions. But really, these are quiet and timid animals. The Cayman or alligator ('alligator mississippiensis') that lives in the United States and the tropical regions of the American continent is also a timid animal, useful in this case to make a comparison: an adult alligator reaches about 4,5 metres in length and weights an average of 200 kilos, so just figure how much does the fisher crocodile of India weights. Crocodiles are indeed lovely in their fearsome ugliness, and their skin is very soft to the human touch but, would you caress such a thing? Probably not, because since the age of the placoderm fish from the Devonian (more than 380 million years ago), no animal has had the jaw strength of a crocodile: They bite about seven times stronger than sharks. |
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