Post #14560

Saltwater crocodile: It grew so big that it went into the ocean. To eat sharks, rays and turtles People who say that the days of reptiles are irrevocably over have clearly not heard anything about the saltwater crocodile. Not only is it huge and dangerous, the crocodile holds the title of the river's top predator and is the top of the food chain wherever it lives. But this is not enough for him, the saltwater crocodile conquers the ocean! Despite the fact that the saltwater crocodile is born quite small - it weighs less than a glass of sunflower seeds - the animal grows extremely quickly throughout its life. Therefore, by the age of 10, the green lizard turns into a respectable crocodile weighing 200 kilograms, at 16 years it already weighs almost half a ton, and the weight of elders aged 20+ can reach 1200 kilograms. The body length also does not lag behind, so the largest representatives of the crocodile people stretch 6 meters in length! And of course, all crocodile abilities grow and develop along with the dimensions of the crocodile. If newborn crocs feed only on mud crabs and insects, then the largest of them are capable of dragging down both a tiger and a water buffalo weighing more than a ton. But at the same time, due to a decrease in metabolic rate, the saltwater crocodile acquires a new ability: pretending to be a log at the bottom of the river. The older the animal, the longer it can go without oxygen, so especially large reptiles can lie in ambush for up to 2 hours at a time. This size has only one serious drawback, and that is the disadvantage of large prey. The rivers are too small for adult crocodiles, so some of them go to live on the sea coast. But the animals are not too sad about this. They are perfectly adapted to eating all living things both in rivers and on the sea coast. Just like in river ecosystems, on the coast crocodiles have no enemies, but they can afford to feed on sea turtles, sharks, and giant stingrays - a real haven for a predator weighing a ton! Only the space on the coast is not endless, and crocodiles cannot hunt in the open ocean; they are still ambush predators. But they can move around it! When a saltwater crocodile decides that it cannot feed itself on the coast, it simply swims away. And at this time, slow, lazy creatures show amazing endurance and perseverance. It is known that crocodiles are able to swim up to 500 kilometers in 20 days, stopping only to take a nap. One thing is unclear: where are they going? Saltwater crocodiles swim to Indonesia to join local populations and eat Indonesian meat. At the same time, Indonesian crocodiles are swimming to South Asia or even Northern Australia, where there is also something to chew. And this is the main strength of saltwater crocodiles. They are not just powerful and hardy creatures, capable of devouring literally any inhabitant of rivers and coasts. They are also actively settling hundreds of kilometers around. Therefore, even the c