MARSH MUGGER (Crocodylus palustris)

Crocodiles can be distinguished from alligators by the large tooth at the front on each side of the lower jaw, which fits into a corresponding notch in the upper jaw, revealing that tooth even when the mouth is closed. The difference is best seen when a mugger is viewed from the side; the projecting tooth, together with the wavy outline of its mouth, gives it a rather nasty, smiling appearance.

They prefer swamps and oxbow lakes, although is also seen in rivers. The mugger lies motionless, basking for hours on the banks in the winter until they almost become part of the scenery. Any unwary animal which wanders within range is seized with surprising speed and agility and then dragged into the water and drowned. Internal nostrils opening deep in the throat can be closed with valves, enabling the mugger to hold struggling prey submerged without inhaling water itself. The prey, which can be as large as deer, is then torn apart and swallowed in chunks. Other food is mainly fish and small aquatic creatures, and muggers also scavenge.

Sometimes they travel considerable distances overland in search of food or while commuting from place to place, but they spend much of their time motionless, either in the water or on the banks, depending on the season of the year. Their movements are governed to some extent by the need to regulate their body temperature. In the winter they bask in sun for most of the day to bring their temperature up to a level at which their bodies can function fast and efficiently enough to catch prey. In summer they keep cool by lying in the water, often with their mouths gaping wide open so that they lose heat from the moist inner surfaces.

GHARIAL (Gavialis gangeticus)

The gharial is so called because of the bulbous growth which large breeding males develop on the end of their snouts, and which resembles a ghara (Hindi for ‘pitcher’). it is quite distinct from other crocodilians and belongs to a separate family, Gavialidae, of which it is the only representative. It is the rarest of all crocodilians, found only in isolated pockets of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Mahanadi river systems, with a world population of fewer than two hundred adults in the wild. The largest single concentration of these, numbering about 60 , survives in the Narayani river, which flows in Chitwan.