The crocodile is an ancient reptile that outlived the dinosaurs and currently inhabits the tropics of Australia, Africa, the Americas and Asia. Depending on your experiences with alligators and crocs, you might imagine them as the goofy ticking timebomb foil to Captain Hook in Peter Pan or as terrifyingly cool monsters you often see in Myrtle Beach or Florida.
The American crocodile is a large reptile with four short legs, a long powerful tail, a long snout, and incredibly powerful jaw. They tend to be greenish-gray in color, which helps to camouflage their body as they swim, with a yellow or white underbelly. Crocodylus acutus are large animals. Some mature males can even reach almost six meters (19 feet) in length and weight up to 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds)!
I have been in awe of alligators and crocodiles ever since I was a little girl visiting my grandparents in Tampa. They used to take my cousins and me to a place called in the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, a protected animal habitat that allowed cars to drive through and view the amazing wildlife of the Florida isles. Of course, as kids were not interested in birds or fish, we wanted to see the alligators!
