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Early Hunting

Young crocodiles soon learn to jump out of the water to snatch small birds from the air or from overhanging branches.
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The diet of a juvenile crocodile includes insects and other arthropods, crustaceans and small fish. For the first year, then, young crocodiles feed mainly on small animals like frogs and crabs but will also snatch dragon flies and even "graze" on mosquito larvae. At this stage the young animals corner their prey by curving their bodies and tails around them or by charging suddenly from a still position - the behavior that will come to most characterize their adult hunting habits.

Dangers to Young Crocodiles

Although juvenile crocodiles begin to develop their hunting skills early on they are still vulnerable, especially in the first few weeks of life. Apart from being at risk from larger members of their own species, baby crocodiles are easy prey for hunting birds, weasels, other reptiles, and even otters.

It is never safe for a human being to approach or to harass a crocodile in any way. These powerful animals will, for the most part, leave human beings alone unless they are annoyed or threatened. A mother crocodile with a new brood of hatchlings is on constant watch for such threats and should be avoided by human beings at all costs. The best way to observe a mother crocodile and her young is at a distance through binoculars.

Avoiding Predators

The first lesson a mother crocodile teaches to her young is that there is safety in the water as well as in a group. It is normal for a mother crocodile, in her haste to get her newborn "children" into the water as quickly as possible, to pick them up in her mouth and carry them to the bank. Since the skin of a crocodile's lower jaw can stretch into a sort of hanging cradle, a mother crocodile can carry about 15 of her young at one time. Since a typical clutch of eggs is around 40, the mother must make several rapid trips after hatching to get her young safely into the water.

Mother crocodiles and their young communicate with a vocabulary of approximately eighteen sounds, a repertoire more typical of mammals than of reptiles. These calls frequently save the lives of young crocodiles since they can call out if they become lost from the group or are being threatened.

The world of the crocodile and of its young is much more complex than many humans realize. They are not only armed with a working vocabulary but, in the case of females, with a tender protective instinct to guard their young. These instincts and behavior patterns that "kick in" from the time the crocodile eggs are laid to the point, at which they hatch, are fundamental to the survival of the species. A baby crocodile may not be the cutest newborn in the animal kingdom, but it does enter the world loved and protected.
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