Crocodile Facts & Utilities
Alligators and Crocodiles
Ferocious Crocodile Details
About Similar Reptiles
Free Newsletter

Stay updated, sign up for our free newsletter to receive useful tips

Full Name
Email Id

sign up

Garials Eating Habits

At young age they feed on flies and other insect. When they grow old they prefer frogs, lizards, fish or other small animals and at times even sheep, goats, horses, etc. They leave no chance to grab any animal which may come wandering in their way.

Gharial Crocodle also eat jewelry, stones and even sticks, which helps in digestion process and keeps them in cheerful spirit.

How do Gavials multiply?

Gavials process of reproduction is same as in other species of Crocodiles. Female is sexually matured at the age of ten. They will initiate the mating process in November, December and January. After mating, it is their time to build the nests and lays eggs, which they do in the dry season of March, April and May. This is the most appropriate season for nesting whereby the rivers shrinks a bit giving them suitable space to build their nests.

Females lay 30 to 50 eggs which weigh an average 160 grams. Their incubation period lasts for 90 days and during the time of hatching, hatchlings will make a squeaking voice to alert mothers to help them come out from the eggs. Mother Gavials cannot carry their children in their jaws, so when born. Juveniles have to move to the safety of the rivers on their own. However mother does protect them in water for few days till they are mature enough to take care of themselves.

Are Gharials Man Eaters?

The people residing in the river banks have believed so but it has been proved that Gavials are not man-eaters because their physical feature does not allow them to eat man or to even launch an attack on man.

False Gavial

Another species of Gavalide family is False Gavial. It is a narrow-snouted crocodile whose ancestors date back to the Eocene Period, more than 55 million years ago. It used to be in plenty numbers in Borneo, Sumatra regions from Malay Peninsula to Thailand, but since 1970, there is not a single sign of this species in these regions. Now they are limited to freshwater swamps, lakes and rivers of Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Although it belongs to a separate family, this species is similar in appearance to Indian gavial and occupies same niche. The false gavial can reach a length of 16 feet (5 M).

This is the only species of crocodile in which females does not give parental protection to their babies. Their diet consists of fish, insects, crustaceans, and small mammals One of its species, Tomistoma scheglii measures heavily and can grow till 13 feet in length.

To the utter dismay of Crocodile lovers, they are also now in a verge of extinction and are critically endangered species. Human encroachment, including habitat loss due to rice cultivation led to their considerable decline.

Conservation measures of gavials

Their extinction is due to Man's incredulous attitude and approach. Continuous increase in encroachments along riverside in the form of developments led to their decline in population. In many places Males are hunted to utilize aphrodisiac properties of the powdered dried snout whereas hatchlings are killed even before they are born because the eggs are collected for medicinal purposes.

Rate this Article
  Excellent

  Good

  Average

  Bad

  Terrible

rate

Current Rating
The protection to Gavials was granted in the year 1971, which reduced their poaching to a considerable degree. Now India has nine protected areas, whereby breeding and ranching operations are undertaken. Here eggs are collected from deep forests, raised in captivity and then released back. This Conservation process will be a success only if all nations join hands to make strong and concrete efforts to put an end to the killings off crocodiles.

You can collect lots of information on gavial and know the different types of gavial. But for all this you must know what is a gharial.
Related Articles
Caimans - Can You Have Them for Pets?
Black Caiman - Get an Idea on these Nocturnal Giants
What is a Spectacled Caiman?
Shark vs. Crocodile - Who is Stronger?

Bookmark this Page Email this to your friend Add this page to del.icio.us



Suggest an Article

Haven´t found the article you are looking for, please suggest your article. We value all your suggestions and comments.
Home  |  Site Map  |  Disclaimer  |  Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us  |  Copyrights
© Copyright 2011 crocsite.com All rights reserved. Read legal policy and privacy policy.