Siamese crocodile

Siamese crocodile ( Crocodylus siamensis )

The Siamese crocodile ( Crocodylus siamensis ) is a species of genuine crocodile ( Crocodylidae ).

Features

The Siamese crocodile reaches a length of less than four meters. Especially the young animals are similar at first glance, the saltwater crocodile ( Crocodylus porosus ), but differ from it by the increased nuchal shields clearly pronounced. The Siamese crocodile has a much broader snout and several rows of cross signs on the throat. While saltwater crocodiles prefer salt and brackish water areas, the Siamkrokodil keeps on exclusively in freshwater rivers, lakes and marshes. On crocodile farms in Thailand and Vietnam, there was often intended for hybridization between the two species mentioned above, in this case, the specific characters of hybrids saltwater crocodile and Siamkrokodil on. This hybrid crocodiles are capable of reproduction and are still bred for the purpose of obtaining skins, especially in Thailand and the PRC in very large numbers.

Dissemination

The Siamese crocodile lives in fresh water such as rivers, small lakes and marsh areas. The distribution is very limited and includes parts of the Southeast Asian mainland of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaya and some Indonesian islands. In the wild, however, it is very rare today because of hunting and habitat loss.

The IUCN lists this species as threatened with extinction ( critically endangered )

Way of life

Like most other crocodiles feed on the Siamese crocodile from very different organisms of the water. Its spectrum is likely to involve doing insects, fish, other reptiles and amphibians, birds and small to medium-sized mammals, more accurate, however, is not known.

For reproduction time a hill nest from plant materials is built, in which the eggs are deposited. In captivity, such a nest comprises 2 to 30 eggs, nest size in the wild is unknown.