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Mugger Crocodile
The marsh crocodile of India — a broad-snouted freshwater croc that basks on riverbanks from Rajasthan to the far south.
How to spot it
A medium-to-large crocodile with a broad, almost alligator-like snout and heavy armoured scales, usually dark olive to grey-brown; big adults can pass four metres. That broad snout sets it apart from the long, narrow-jawed gharial it sometimes shares rivers with.
Where it lives
Freshwater across the Indian subcontinent — rivers, lakes, marshes, reservoirs and village tanks, from Rajasthan and Gujarat down to the south and Sri Lanka. It is the crocodile people most often meet in India.
What it eats
A carnivore and ambush hunter that takes fish, turtles, birds and mammals coming to drink, lying still at the surface and striking fast. It can go a long time between meals.
Behaviour & life
Cold-blooded, it basks on the bank to warm up and slips into the water to cool down. Females are careful parents — they guard the nest, then carry the hatchlings gently to the water in their mouths — and it digs burrows to shelter from heat and cold.
In India
Protected under Schedule I and classed as Vulnerable. Numbers recovered thanks to crocodile-breeding programmes begun in the 1970s; today the main issues are habitat loss and occasional conflict where crocs and people share water.
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