Created by Adam Britton
© 1995-2011 All rights reserved.
LAST UPDATE: 9 MAY 2011
Welcome to CROCODILIAN.COM - Crocodilians: Natural History and Conservation is the Internet's largest crocodile site, established in 1995. Written by a crocodile specialist, it's an ever-growing database of everything you need to know about crocodiles, including all the different species, their biology, conservation, how they talk, and even captive care.
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CROCODILIANS Natural History & Conservation
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RECENT NEWS
9th May 2011
The latest episode of the CrocLog Podcast (#5) is now available. We interview John Brueggen, the director of the St Augustine Alligator Farm, about the first fertile gharial eggs laid in the US; we discuss the new Nile crocodile species Crocodylus suchus; we talk about the TV show Diving with Crocodiles which involves doing exactly that with wild Nile crocodiles (are they crazy?); and we analyse the latest crocodile news from around the world.
In other news, the attack database is coming along extremely well and we'll be implementing this here soon, we're updating species distribution maps, and a few other things.
27th February 2011
We managed to survive Cyclone Carlos relatively intact, although Darwin had record-breaking amounts of rainfall that turned our place into a swamp. Our internet still isn't working properly. However, I've been able to upload the CrocLog Podcast Episode 3 where we talk about everything from crocodile attacks to vegetarian crocodiles. Have a listen. Episode 4 is coming in March, but first we're attending a documentary conference in Adelaide where hopefully we can see about getting one of our crocodile documentaries properly funded. We're also still working behind the scenes on updating the site. In fact it's frustrating to post this to the "old" page design because the new one is a lot better! But soon...
5th February 2011
Lots of banging and clanging is occurring behind the scenes. It's exciting stuff!
7th August 2010
Our latest crocodile documentary "Croc Attack" airs on Discovery Channel this weekend. It's on at 9pm ET/PT Saturday 7th August, 12am ET/PT Sunday 8th August and 6pm ET/PT Sunday 8th August. It's all about the conflict between people and crocodiles, specifically around Darwin in northern Australia. It's a fascinating story that has similarities to many other crocodilian species around the world that exist in close proximity to people. I hope you can watch it. In other news, you may have noticed this website has been rather quiet of late. I assure you I'm not neglecting it, but making changes always takes much longer than you'd like when you're working on it in your spare time. We'll get there eventually! In the meantime don't forget the Croc Blog which is updated more regularly with some interesting discussion about crocodiles.
25th December 2009
I'd just like to wish all our visitors a Merry Christmas and I hope you have a great end to the year and an even better start to the next one, whether you celebrate Christmas or not. I'm taking a bit of a break but the website will be back in 2010 with new content, new photos, new videos and perhaps a few surprises. This year has been a fairly quite one for the website, but that's not going to be the case for 2010. We've been going for nearly 15 years now, quite an achievement, and we have to move with the times. But for now, here's the final Pic of the Month for 2009. Enjoy.
5th September 2009
There's a new Pic of the Month for September, although at this rate I'll be calling it the "Pic Every Three Months" which doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Crocodile activity in Darwin is fairly quiet at this time of year. For the last few months it's been very cold, so it's typical for both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles to eat less and basically do less. I am somewhat envious. Now that we're into September, however, we can feel the temperature and the humidity rising. The wet season is just around the corner, but first we have to survive "The Build Up" where it becomes incredibly hot, humid and stifling. We humans aren't particularly impressed with this, but crocodiles seem to enjoy it. In fact, it heralds the onset of the breeding season. Smaug, our captive male, has already started jaw clapping with renewed vigour. He literally "bites" the water with a sound not dissimilar to that of a car door being slammed. It's a reassuring sound on these stifling nights.
30th July 2009
We finally have a new Pic of the Month for July. We'll be getting back to a regular monthly schedule from now on, with a lot of recent travelling making it difficult to update the site on a regular basis. Although I've got a bit of a backlog of photos to work through, don't forget to send your epic crocodile photos to feature on the site. Also on the Croc Blog I discuss the conflict between swimming and safety on the beaches around Darwin.
16th July 2009
I've made minor updates to species list to improve accuracy.
2nd April 2009
There's a new Pic of the Month for April featuring some fiery eyes. Don't forget to check out the January picture as well, because the previous link wasn't working properly (now fixed). There's a new entry in the Croc Blog about shoes (I promise it's more interesting than it sounds). Erin continues to analyse the croc news that matters over at Spotlight on Crocs. Right now we're working with three film crews. Simultaneously. It's chaos.
23rd March 2009
We are updating various aspects of the website right now, much of this is going on in the background but you will already notice that some species descriptions have been updated. Other changes will take a little time to come into effect, including the title page in the near future. In the meantime, I continue to discuss crocodilian matters on my Croc Blog and Erin is providing crocodile news analysis on her Spotlight on Crocs. I have new Pic of the Month updates to go online shortly.
20th January 2009
We hope you had a good time over Christmas and New Year, and welcome to 2009! We've certainly been a bit quiet of late, but that's not because nothing has been going on. Quite the contrary, but it's too early to show you anything yet. However, there are fairly regular updates happening on my Croc Blog, the latest of which is discussing the addition of new crocodilian species. None of these changes are reflected in the Crocodilian Species List just yet, but we're working on it. In the meantime, there is a new Pic of the Month for January, and we'll be back on schedule with those updates from now on. Don't forget to send your best crocodilian photos in.
30th October 2008
Sorry about the lack of updates recently, but we have been working on various projects around Australia without much in the way of internet access. One of these is our research into pygmy freshwater crocodile populations, and you can read a recent ABC Stateline transcript about the work, plus a blog entry that I was able to post from near the field site. We have also been doing various saltwater crocodile projects that I can't really elaborate upon, although we did get the chance to finally meet George Craig on Green Island. He cares for the largest saltwater crocodile in captivity. I know a lot of people make that claim, but George has the genuine article. Speaking of which, I'll be updating the CBD section about large crocodiles soon with updated information we learned from George (photos included). In the meantime we have a few deadlines to meet, although we'll put a new Pic of the Month online fairly soon.
21st August 2008
The 2nd Annual Crocs Galore Gala takes place on Saturday 25 October 2008 at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, NC. It's a night of fun to support crocodilian conservation, education and research of the most critically endangered crocodilian species. The Gala includes a free Halloween event from 9am to 5pm, followed by the Gala itself from 6pm to 9pm hosted by National Geographic's Dr Brady Barr. There will also be an auction to support the Critically Endangered Indian Gharial. There's far too much going on for me to include it all here, so visit the Crocodylian Advisory Group page for more information and booking details.
1st August 2008
There are two new Pic of the Month photographs: July and August. One photograph is certainly prettier than the other, but they are both fascinating studies showing both extremes of crocodilian size. In other news, I am continuing to update the Croc Blog with various stories of mostly crocodilian interest. Also, there's a new facility that's now opened in Darwin called Crocosaurus Cove which is definitely worth putting down on your places to visit. It contains some interesting and novel ways of displaying crocodiles, plus it has the largest collection of reptiles in Australia (outside of the wild, that is!).
15th July 2008
The main host of this website, the Florida Museum of Natural History, is having some server problems at the moment. These should be resolved in the near future, but you may have some difficulty accessing most areas of this site until then. If you can't access the site, please try again later as the problem is apparently intermittant.
15th June 2008
I've recently returned from the 19th Working Meeting of the Crocodile Specialist Group held in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I'll talk a little bit more about this in my Croc Blog once I've written the update. In the meantime, there's a new Pics of the Month online for May and June. Two picture updates can only mean that I'm a little behind with the update, I cannot deny it! In other news, despite the apparent lack of updates here there's a lot going on behind the scenes. What are they? Well, you'll just have to wait and see, but let's say it's been a long time coming.
9th April 2008
I've started a new blog, appropriately named Croc Blog. In it you'll see me talk more openly about a range of interesting issues about crocodilians, whether it's new research, events in the news, conservation issues or simply a few random thoughts about crocs. I've just posted the first part of a potted history of research into crocodile antibiotics and crocodillin. Part 2 coming soon!
8th April 2008
Two new Pics of the Month! First, a rather sinister looking picture of a crocodile for March prompted by some interesting research findings, and secondly April gives us the rarely-photographed Jacaré and a short essay about its name. Also this week Dr Mark Merchant announced that American alligators have a powerful antibiotic factor in their blood. This replicates our findings in 1999 and 2002 showing that both Australian saltwater and freshwater crocodiles have antimicrobial peptides in their blood capable of killing a wide range of bacteria including MRSA. We named our protein "crocodillin" and Mark has named his "alligacin". It's exciting news and again highlights just how much we can benefit from crocodilians.
11th March 2008
I can now announce the winner of the best picture submitted to the Pic of the Month competition for 2007, and remarkably it doesn't even feature a crocodile! Find out who won and the two runners up here. A new picture for March is on its way.
10th March 2008
The results of the 2007 Pic of the Year competition are coming tomorrow, once I verify the vote from one of the judges which will decide 2nd and 3rd place! There was no catching the winner this year. In the meantime, remember the 19th Working Meeting of the IUCN/SSC Crocodile Specialist Group is being held in Bolivia from 2-8 June 2008. The conference is open for early registration right now, and there is a general Call for Papers the deadline for which has been extended until 28 March 2008. You can find more information at the official website.
27th January 2008
Welcome to the first update for 2008, and we're already at the end of January. There's a great new Pic of the Month to kick off the year. More importantly, the new Gharial Conservation Alliance website is now online and linked directly from this website. Unfortunately things are looking quite bleak for gharials right now, particularly with the news of mass gharial deaths (over 65 adults, that's over a QUARTER of the remaining adult population!) in the Chambal River. If you care remotely about crocodilians, please take the time to visit gharials.org to learn more about this amazing creature and what you can do to help.
27th November 2007
Ok, my excuse for this late update is a technical hitch - my main hard drive crashed recently and it took a while to get everything back up and running. Just the usual electronic problems associated with the onset of the wet season! But without any further delay, here is the November Pic of the Month which is more of a character study than usual.
2nd October 2007
Another late update - very busy this time of year, but there's still time for the September Pic of the Month which shows an alligator in Costa Rica. Well, perhaps not quite, but it's often a source of confusion. The October Pic of the Month is coming in mid October.
23rd August 2007
Better late than never, the August Pic of the Month shows some rather interesting crocodile behaviour. In other news, we attended the premiere of Rogue in Darwin recently - Greg McLean's film about an unfeasibly large crocodile that terrorises a tour group in the Northern Territory. It's a spectacular film, and the CGI crocodile is certainly the best I've seen - it's not perfect, but they obviously tried hard to make it look realistic. Other than that, it's your typical monster movie, so you know what to expect. We also saw Darlene Johnson's Crocodile Dreaming, a quite different and considerably more impactful film - it's only 25 minutes long, but it packs a real punch.
15th July 2007
The Maryland Zoo is holding a "Croc Week" for the Crocodilian Advisory Group from 16 to 21 July 2007. The week will feature croc expert presentations, training presentations, discovery station, live animal encounters, arts and crafts, and end with a gala fundraiser to benefit crocodilian education and in-situ coservation efforts worldwide. You can download a flyer HERE which contains more details.
9th July 2007
The July Pic of the Month is a fantastic photograph of a hatching Indian Gharial - surely one of the most critically endangered species... crocodilian or not. More information about the plight of the gharial is coming just as soon as it's finished!
15th June 2007
The June Pic of the Month is now available - if there are famous crocodilians, this is undoubtedly the latest. The forthcoming gharial update is still in the works - they always take more time than you think. The GMTF website is also in the final stages of polish.
5th June 2007
The June Pic of the Month will be available in a few days time (we have some deadlines to complete first!), followed shortly thereafter by a complete update of the Indian Gharial (G. gangeticus) listing on this site. The situation with the gharial has been deterioriting for some time, and we have just learned that it will be reclassified as CRITICALLY ENDANGERED under the 2007 IUCN Red List. This is sobering news, but it will certainly assist in spreading the news that the unique gharial is on the way out unless urgent action is taken. This will be a focus of this site over the coming weeks and months. Also, the new Gharial Multi-Task Force website is apparently close to completion, and we'll provide clear links when it goes live. Credit to the uplisting goes to the determined members of the GMTF who are working hard to take action against the declines of the gharial.
4th May 2007
If you live in the UK, make sure you catch Invasion of the Crocodiles (The Natural World, BBC2, Wednesday 9 May 9.00pm; repeated Sunday 13 May 6.10pm) which follows a satellite tracking research project on saltwater crocodiles in the Northern Territory. It features Adam Britton working with the rangers of Kakadu National Park, including Garry Lindner, as they try to find out what is driving increasing numbers of saltwater crocodiles into new areas and into greater contact with people. The programme follows their exploits capturing, tagging and tracking over a dozen crocodiles within Kakadu and across the NT. The programme was a finalist in the Missoula Film Festival (Presenter / Host category) so it should be good - I haven't seen it myself yet! I've also updated the Pic of the Month with a quite spectacular photograph of an American Alligator.
6th April 2007
We recently launched the website for our crocodile consultancy business Big Gecko, so you might be interested to check it out. We're expanding the number of photos available almost daily, with some interesting images of the kind of work we do. Our business centres around crocodile research and filming, based in Darwin, Northern Territory of Australia.
4th April 2007
The latest Pic of the Month is now online. The interesting thing is, there's no crocodile in the actual photo at all, but it's still one of the best croc pictures I've seen for a while. Intrigued? Then go and check it out. Through our company Big Gecko we've been busy recently with various film crews, the most recent being National Geographic for a show called "Maximum Crocodile". You may also have seen a movie recently called Primeval. It's all about the large Nile Crocodile called Gustave from Burundi (although you'd never know it from the trailers). We helped the guys at Luma Pictures get their CGI crocodile looking right and moving realistically, and from what we've seen it looks like they did a pretty good job. Never as good as the real thing, of course, but Primeval isn't the only crocodile movie coming out in 2007...
12th March 2007
It's March already! Where has the time gone? Saltwater crocodile nesting season is reaching its conclusion with thousands of nests across northern Australia disgorging lots of baby crocodiles. Not many of them will see the end of the year because populations here are booming, and it's tough trying to find a place to survive when the competition is so fierce. Speaking of fierce competition, the winner of the 2006 Pic of the Year has been chosen - it's a worthy winner, so thanks to everyone who took part. We already have a couple of great pictures for 2007, so check out the March Pic of the Month. As always, if you have a great picture, send it in and be in the running for the 2007 contest.
2nd January 2007
First, a Happy New Year to everyone! The start of a new year makes you look both to the past and to the future. In terms of the past, 2006 was a challenging and eventful year. I quit my job, set up my own business, got married, and worked with David Attenborough, amongst other things. Looking to the future, 2007 presents the chance to go in different directions. This website has the chance to evolve, and I hope you continue to visit to see where we go. The first order of business it the Pic of the Month for January - very impressive! The voting for the best picture of 2006 is underway and the results will be presented in February.
28th November 2006
Lots of hard work in recent weeks, so apologies for missing the regular monthly updates. To make up for it, we have two Pic of the Months this time! The first is for October and is quite a striking image that you probably don't want to witness in real life. The second is for November and also shows a crocodilian with its mouth open, but this one is asking for something quite different. I have been working on site updates "in the background" (which means you can't see them yet) so keep coming back and you'll notice a few changes by the New Year.
26th September 2006
I was saddened to learn of the tragic deaths of 24 people on board a WWF helicopter in Nepal last weekend. Dr Tirtha Maskey was amongst them, a man who was a conservationist in a very real sense, and who had played a significant role in both the IUCN Rhino Specialist Group and the IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group. It was his work on gharials that is most familiar to me, and he was a valued member of the new Gharial Multi-Task Force trying to reverse the ailing fortunes of gharials in Nepal and India, and his loss is a sad day for gharials. Fortunately his work will remain as an invaluable component of conservation efforts for wild gharials.
7th September 2006
August's Pic of the Month is a spectacular photograph of some very rarely seen behaviour. It's always great when someone sends a picture of something rarely seen before, and this is no exception. Congregations of crocs around food sources are fairly known in a few other species, but salties are particularly intolerant of other individuals... except when a lot of food is involved, of course. In other news, I'm hoping the gharial multi-task force website will be online later this month - I'll link to it as soon as it's online.
4th September 2006
Steve Irwin was killed today by a stingray barb through the chest while making a documentary off the coast of Cairns. People always asked what I thought of Steve Irwin, expecting me to have lots of terrible things to say about him given his track record with crocodile safety. It's true that I didn't always share his opinion, and there are times that I wanted to strangle the guy (figuratively speaking), but I always had respect for his genuine nature and his obvious affinity for and ability around animals. Yes, we all used videos of Steve getting bitten to teach others how not to catch crocodiles and the like, but we all knew Steve was good at it (even if it wasn't exactly the safest approach). What impressed me most about Steve Irwin was the fact he always called a spade a spade, and you knew he'd be completely honest with you - a rarity these days. I met Steve at the Australia Zoo in 2002 and, even though we had to agree to disagree on a few points (but not everything), I came away with a lot of respect for him. He spoke his mind, and he let you speak yours and listened. He was the kind of "spanner in the works" that any good industry needs to keep it on its toes. I'll miss that. Respects, Steve, for all the good things you did for crocs.
20th August 2006
The Indian Gharial used to be on the brink of extinction, but effective conservation measures brought it back. Unfortunately this progress has been reversed, and now the gharial is once again in serious trouble. More on this soon as the new Gharial Multi-Task Force gets underway, but until then check out the gharial featuring in this month's Pic of the Month. Otherwise, Erin and I are on our honeymoon in Europe right now, so we're chasing around slightly smaller reptiles for a change. The next update will be in early September.
4th July 2006
A rather quirky Pic of the Month for June, which has appeared a little late this month. July's picture will be along before the end of the month. The recent CSG meeting in France has now finished, and by all accounts it was a successful meeting with some progress being made on several fronts. The deteriorating state of the Indian Gharial was highlighted, and a new Task Force is being set up to establish an action network. There was also welcome emphasis on the crocodilian work being undertaken in Africa, including West Africa which has been under-represented of late.
19th May 2006
Alligators are in the news again, and not in a good way. There have been three reported attacks (BBC News link) in Florida in the space of a week. Illegal feeding of alligators heightens the risk of alligators attacking humans, and this may be one reason behind the attacks, but without doubt following safe practices around water is the best way of reducing the risk of attack by any crocodilian. You can safely appreciate an alligator in this month's Pic of the Month. I'm also busy writing updates for the website which should start to go online over the next few weeks.
11th April 2006
The April Pic of the Month is now available. In other news, I recently finished co-authoring a book on captive husbandry of green iguanas for TFH Publications. Where's the book on crocs, you might be asking? Well, watch this space! There's some more crocodile filming coming up later this month, capped off with a short trip to Cambodia. I'm also working on updates to the website, but they're not ready to go live just yet.
9th March 2006
The first Pic of the Month for 2006 is online. Not only is it an excellent picture, but the photographer knows a thing or two about crocs! In other news, 2006 is going to be quite a year. For a start I'm getting married! Fortunately my fiancé has a passion for crocs too, so expect twice as much croc content from now on. Secondly I've left my position at Wildlife Management International and I'm currently working freelance. There are a number of projects already in the pipeline, and our new venture is called Big Gecko, so it all adds up to a very exciting future. Expect things to really heat up in the months ahead.
8th March 2006
Is it March already? Apologies for lagging behind with the updates for 2006, but it's been a busy few weeks recently. For a start, we have the winner of the 2006 Pic of the Year award - be sure to check that out. I am working on the latest Pic of the Month right now, and it should appear with the next update... along with some interesting developments!
4th January 2006
Happy New Year to everyone, and welcome to 2006! Time flew by so quickly that the last three months of Pic of the Month didn't get updated and the September update didn't appear to work properly. Not having much luck! The good news is you get 4 stunning images in one month, so be sure to check out: September, October, November and December. The judges are currently voting on the winner of the 2006 Picture of the Year, and the winner will be announced by the end of the month! I would like to thank everyone who submitted such a diverse array of truly stunning images over the last year - definitely the best yet for photographs. And 2006 is going to be an interesting year. More next month!
17th October 2005
Unfortunately my laptop died last month, and my attempt to update the website using the online interface didn't exactly work very well! I'm afraid the Pic of the Month wasn't updated correctly, and neither was this page. So while there will be a new Pic of the Month in the next week, I'll also keep last month's picture prominently displayed - go and check it out now, it's very good. My laptop is now back and suitably patched up, so things should get back to normal shortly.
26th September 2005
September's Pic of the Month is now up and running. Makes me feel sleepy. And for a debunking of the New Orleans crocodile story, see www.snopes.com. Crocs are popular subjects of hoax emails, because there are plenty of impressive photos of them to use as the raw materials! Impressive photo + curious story + wide circulation = urban legend.
23rd September 2005
There's a hoax email doing the rounds right now, purporting to show a "21 foot long" crocodile that was caught swimming in downtown New Orleans. There are even three photographs of said crocodile in the back of a truck that come attached with the email. In reality, the photographs show a Nile Crocodile that was killed in Africa. At this stage I'm still trying to determine the country it came from, because the pictures have been used several times before in such hoax emails. I was first sent the pictures in 2004. By all accounts, the crocodile in the pictures is around 17 feet long. Incidentally, there is a species of crocodile in the United States - the American Crocodile, found in the southern tip of Florida, Central and South America. There are no crocodiles in Louisiana. September's Pic of the Month is a little late because I've been very busy, but it's coming in the next few days.
17th August 2005
Back in 1998 we did a pilot study in conjunction with BBC Science on crocodile blood, looking at aspects of their immune system. We discovered a natural, powerful antibiotic we named "crocodillin". Despite worldwide interest we simply couldn't secure funding to continue the research, but fortunately we're now collaborating with Dr Mark Merchant of McNeese State University in Louisiana. Mark's been studying the alligator immune system for several years, so we both thought it was an excellent opportunity to expand upon the pilot study, and increase the scope of Mark's own work. We spent the last two weeks collecting blood samples from wild crocs in conjunction with Parks Australia North (Kakadu National Park) and the Parks and Wildlife Service of the NT, together with blood from captive crocodiles from Crocodylus Park, and the early findings illustrate the similarity between crocodile and alligator immune systems. Mark's work showing the effectiveness of the alligator immune system against a wide range of bacteria, viruses (including HIV) and fungi are very promising, so we can't wait for a more thorough examination of these blood samples once the permits come through and we can safely ship them to the US. In the meantime we've had a lot of media attention! It's good to get crocs into the news in a positive light. Finally, this month's Pic of the Month is quite spectacular!
17th July 2005
 I've just returned from a work trip to Cambodia, where amongst other things I was able to visit some of the temples at Angkor. The most interesting temple for me was probably Bayon, primarily due to the wonderful stone carvings that adorn many of the outer walls. These tell some fascinating stories, and many of them feature crocodiles in the lakes of Cambodia including Tonle Sap - a large lake in the centre of the country. From many of the carvings it's quite clear that the crocodiles are Siamese Crocodiles (due to the exaggerated "horns" behind the eyes) which unfortunately now are restricted to a few remnant populations mainly in the isolation of the Cardomon Mountains..
16th June 2005
I've been writing a number of new "Croc Frequently Asked Questions" - questions that I often receive, but whose answers are often elusive. Well, there's more on the way once I sort out some pictures to illustrate the text I've written. Keep coming back - we are very much like crocodiles here. We sit completely motionless for a while and then suddenly BAM! We explode into action!
14th April 2005
We escaped the cyclone last month - in fact, the entire wet season has been quite dry and disappointing this year. Fortunately it doesn't appear to have affected nesting too much, with a large number of nests found on both tidal rivers and freshwater swamps. With floodplains drying out quickly, we'll have chance to visit the McKinlay River by quad bike in another week or two to catch up on the progress of the cane toads. We've already seen impacts on monitor lizards (they have almost completely disappeared in the short term) and we're expecting to see impacts on crocodiles this year.
15th March 2005
It's late on Sunday night (actually it's Monday morning!) and Severe Tropical Cyclone Ingrid is about 130km north-northwest of us. Fortunately it's heading due west right now, but there's always a chance it might change direction. Back to Melacca Swamp next week to collect whatever crocodile eggs haven't been flooded, so here's hoping none of us step on anything reptilian this time.
27th February 2005
 There will be a Regional Meeting of the IUCN-SSC Crocodile Specialist Group for Latin America and the Caribbean from 17-20 May 2005 in Santa Fe, Argentina, hosted by the CSG, Projecto Yacaré and Ministerio de la Producción de Santa Fe. A call for papers and posters has been issued, and more information on the meeting can be found here (in Spanish and English).
Incidentally, the Centre for Disease Control in Darwin finally determined what particular flavour of tropical virus I've been suffering from: not leptospirosis after all, but Ross River Virus. This is a disease that particularly affects joints and muscles, and ranges in severity from mild aches to being totally crippling. I have a medium case, which means I won't be playing tennis for a while.
9th February 2005
Last week while collecting eggs at Melacca Swamp, I stepped on an adult female Saltwater Crocodile. Fortunately I realise what she was before she realised what I was, so I was able to extricate myself from the situation. She was submerged beneath dense vegetation covering a hidden channel, in case you're wondering how I managed to stumble on a 3 metre reptile. It certainly beats catching another tropical disease, though.
30th January 2005
All the votes are in for the 2004 Pic of the Month photo competition. I've actually been very ill for the past few weeks. The local Centre for Disease Control believe I caught leptospirosis - a particularly nasty virus that I may have contracted while collecting crocodile eggs just before the New Year. Funny to think that despite wading through a crocodile-infested swamp, it's the smallest of organisms that gets you. I'm starting up a crocodilian blog - yes, a blog. Getting with the times! However it's not quite ready for prime-time yet, but I'll let you know when it's ready.
5th January 2005
Happy New Year! I must admit, when I first put together the basic page of information on crocodiles nearly 10 years ago, I never imagined this site would grow to the size and popularity it has over a decade. For that I have to thank everyone who has visited this website over the years - whether this is your first visit, or whether you've been here since the very start before it was "crocodilian.com". All those emails of thanks, thousands of questions, dozens of pictures, and just general letters of support have all been greatly appreciated. Don't worry - this isn't a swansong letter! There's plenty more ahead of us yet. As this is the website's 10th Anniversary this year, I'm going to cook up something in celebration - I'll let you know what that is next month. In the meantime I'll just send my best wishes, particularly to my friends and colleagues in the areas affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami.
16th November 2004
As the wet season hits us, and electrical storms crackle through the evening sky, we're reminded just how influential these seasonal changes are in the lives of crocodiles. Even we can feel the dramatic change in the weather - the rising humidity and temperature, rainfall, even a sense of atmospheric pressure change as storm fronts move in. Crocodiles set their internal clocks using these environmental cues, and now it's time for adult female saltwater crocodiles to think about nesting. Meanwhile, these rising temperatures are also a cue to cane toads to become more active. A recent trip to the McKinlay River revealed hundreds of the little devils hopping around, waiting for the rains to trigger their own breeding season... and perhaps the deaths of thousands of crocodiles that wait to feast upon them.
1st October 2004
Recent observations from the McKinlay River suggest that, while cane toads are present, they haven't been there long enough to have a major impact on either crocodile or goanna densities. The majority of freshwater crocodile nests have been found and eaten by Varanus panoptes yet enough survive to keep the population stable. As the wet season approaches, saltwater crocodiles are starting to breed - we expect the first wild nests to start appearing in late November or December.
A recent spate of spam mails advertising a product called "The Antidote" has people contacting me asking whether it's genuine. The manufacturers claim that it is based on the "crocodillin" antibiotic that I helped discover in 1998 and strongly imply that we endorse their product. This is not true. I would like to clarify that "The Antidote" is not associated with our "crocodillin" research and at no time have I endorsed such a product. I understand that the BBC are considering legal action, which should tell you everything you need to know.
15th August 2004
Returned from vacation.
13th June 2004
The 17th CSG Working Meeting was a great success, despite the hard work required to pull it off. There will soon be a change in both Chairmanship and the Executive Office, and there are plans to develop the CSG's online presence further. Much needed vacation is forthcoming.
9th May 2004
We held the 17th Working Meeting of the Crocodile Specialist Group held here in Darwin (http://wmi.com.au/csg1). A lot of work but a great success. The Proceedings are coming soon.
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
The Crocodilian List discussion list - come and join us today.
A Brief History of Crocodilian Conservation - read this essay if you think croc conservation is simply a matter of protecting everything.
Animal Face-Off - a novel approach to getting biology and science across to an audience increasingly alienated from the natural world.
McKinlay Freshwater Crocodile Project 2001 photographs.
Chinese Alligator Fund - Support the conservation of the critically endangered Chinese alligator. Donors have already made a vital difference, but the species is not safe yet. Visit the store for t-shirts, mugs and more. Visit the website to purchase stunning Ilfochrome prints. Check out kingsnake.com's Web Radio for a recent update on its progress.
Ferocious Crocs hosted by Animal Planet where I field the answers to popular croc questions.
Species Distribution Maps - The most up-to-date and detailed distribution maps for all 23 species, used by organisations such as National Geographic and others on a regular basis. Routinely stolen by Wikipedia contributors! Help to improve them further and provide a resource for scientists and educators.
Walking with Dinosaurs - Speaking of Supercroc, crocodiles are helping to shed light on creatures that went extinct over 65 million years ago. Read more about the 21st Century Dinosaurs.
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