Mugger Crocodile

The mugger, or marsh crocodile, is a medium-sized, broad-snouted crocodile of fresh water, found from southeastern Iran across the Indian subcontinent in marshes, lakes, rivers and artificial ponds. It rarely reaches 5 m in length. It is a powerful swimmer but will also walk overland in the hot season in search of suitable water. Both young and adults dig burrows, into which they retreat when the temperature falls below about 5 °C or rises above 38 °C (Wikipedia, general species account).

Females dig nest holes in sand and lay up to 46 eggs in the dry season. The sex of the hatchlings is set by the incubation temperature, and both parents protect the young for up to a year. Young muggers feed on insects, while adults take fish, reptiles, birds and mammals. The species is protected by law in India, Iran and Sri Lanka (Wikipedia, general species account). Because it also uses man-made ponds, it can live close to villages.

In some parts of India the mugger lives remarkably close to people. In the rural Charotar region of Gujarat, muggers live in village ponds with very little conflict: only two incidents were reported in 2019–2023. In nearby Vadodara, where a large population lives in the sewage-polluted Vishwamitri river, there were 23 incidents, 14 of them fatal, and muggers there had stress hormone levels about three times higher than those in Charotar. The authors suggest this chronic stress could harm the species (Desai et al. 2024).