Nile Crocodile
Crocodylus niloticus
🐊
Chordata
Reptilia
Crocodilia
Crocodyloidea
Crocodylidae
Crocodylus
Crocodylus niloticus
Ancient guardian of Africa’s rivers, Crocodylus niloticus is both legend and nightmare—a 5-meter embodiment of patience that has been waiting at the water’s edge since before the pyramids were ideas.
Description
The Nile crocodile ranges across nearly every freshwater habitat in sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. Olive-brown with darker crossbands, its armored hide and dagger teeth have changed little since the Miocene. It’s a supremely efficient ambush predator, capable of dragging an antelope, zebra, or unwary fisherman under without so much as a ripple. Social basking habits and maternal care give it an eerie, almost communal intelligence.
Once worshipped, feared, and hunted in equal measure, the species has survived millennia of floods, droughts, and human interference. It thrives where others collapse, as if sustained by sheer spite and evolutionary mast
Quick Facts
Max Mass
Shoulder Height
Standing Height
Length
Diet
Trophic Level
1000
0.5
0.75
5
kg
m
m
m
Piscivore
Piscivores
Hunt History
The Nile crocodile’s relationship with humans is a long, bloody footnote in African history. Ancient Egyptians both venerated and slaughtered them: Sobek, the crocodile god, symbolized fertility and power, while priests bred the animals for ritual sacrifice. In later centuries, local communities hunted them for meat, oil, and skins. Colonial expeditions and commercial hide traders intensified the killing through the 19th and 20th centuries. Modern populations are stable only because of regulated harvest and protected zones.
Archaeological and historical evidence of human interaction:
Mummified crocodiles found in Kom Ombo and Fayum (Egypt, c. 2000–100 BCE) demonstrate ritual breeding and preservation.
Rock art in the Ennedi Plateau (Chad, c. 7000 BCE) depicts crocodiles beside hunters, among the earliest clear human–crocodile imagery.
Historical accounts from the 1800s describe large-scale skin collection along the Nile and Zambezi rivers for the leather trade.
Time & Range
Extinction Status
Extant
Extinction Date
Temporal Range
Region
0
BP
Late Pleistocene
Africa
Wiki Link
Fat Analysis
Fatness Profile:
High
Fat %
10
Est. Renderable Fat
100
kg
Targeted Organs
Tail fat
Adipose Depots
Tail fat depot, visceral
Preferred Cuts
Tail base
Hunt Difficulty (x/5)
5