Animal
Gharial
The gharial is a big river reptile with a very long, thin snout. It lives in rivers in India and Nepal and catches fish.
The gharial is a crocodile relative with a long, skinny snout full of sharp teeth, perfect for snapping up fish. It lives in a few big rivers of northern India and Nepal, and it is one of the most threatened crocodilians on Earth.
Gavialis gangeticus is a fish-eating crocodilian of the river systems of the northern Indian subcontinent. Once widespread from the Indus to the Brahmaputra, it now survives at a handful of sites in India and Nepal, with an estimated 300 to 900 adults, and the IUCN lists it as Critically Endangered.
Photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the gharial
The gharial is a big reptile that lives in rivers.
It looks a bit like a crocodile. But its snout is very long and very thin, like a long stick full of little teeth.
The gharial is a crocodilian, part of the same family tree as crocodiles and alligators. You can spot it at once by its snout: long, narrow and lined with many sharp teeth that fit together when the jaws close.
A big male can be 5 to 6 meters long, longer than a car. Grown-up males also grow a round bump on the tip of the snout called a ghara, named after a kind of clay pot. Gharials spend nearly all their lives in rivers and come out mostly to sunbathe and to nest.
Gavialis gangeticus is a reptile (class Reptilia) in the crocodilian order, Crocodylia, and one of its largest members: the Smithsonian's National Zoo gives 5 to 6 meters for males and 3.5 to 4.5 meters for females. It is one of only two species in the family Gavialidae; the other is the tomistoma, the only other crocodilian with a similarly long, slender snout.
Males and females look different. Mature males develop a bulbous growth on the snout tip, the ghara, which partly covers the nostrils. Gharials are built for water: their leg muscles are weak, and on land they push themselves along on their bellies, so they leave the river mainly to bask and nest on sandbanks.
Quick facts
- Group
- Reptile
- Length
- 5 to 6 m
- Weight
- 159 to 181 kg
Where it lives
Gharials live in big rivers in India and Nepal.
They like deep, slow parts of big rivers. They rest in the sun on sandy banks in the middle of the river.
Gharials live in large rivers of northern India and lowland Nepal. They like deep stretches where the current slows down, and they climb out onto sandbars to bask in the sun.
Long ago they lived in the great rivers of Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, and maybe Myanmar too. Today they are gone from most of those rivers. The biggest group by far lives in the Chambal River in India, inside a protected area called the National Chambal Sanctuary.
Before 1943 gharials were common in the main rivers of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra drainages and the Mahanadi system, and possibly the Irrawaddy. The IUCN's assessment (made in 2017, published in 2019) finds them gone from the Indus, the Irrawaddy and most of the Ganges and Brahmaputra-Meghna systems, persisting at 14 sites in the Ganges drainage with confirmed breeding at only five.
It lists the species as resident in India, Nepal and Bangladesh (where only a few wanderers may remain) and extinct in Pakistan, Bhutan and Myanmar. The National Chambal Sanctuary, protected since 1979, covers 625 kilometers of river and holds about 500 of the world's adults. Some groups now live in reservoirs behind dams, such as Katerniaghat on the Girwa River and Corbett National Park.
Continent
Its habitat
Where can you find this animal?
- Used to live here · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Used to live here · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Gharials once lived in rivers of Pakistan (the Indus), Bhutan and probably Myanmar, and are now gone from them.
Places: Pakistan, Bhutan and Myanmar.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
A few stretches of large rivers in the Ganges drainage of northern India and lowland Nepal; in Bangladesh only a few wandering gharials may remain. Gharials live in only small parts of each country shown.
Places: India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in India, Nepal, Germany, Japan, Bhutan, Pakistan, United States, Bangladesh and 2 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
What it eats
Gharials love to eat fish.
They swing their thin snout fast through the water and snap up a fish. Baby gharials eat bugs and frogs too.
Grown-up gharials eat mostly fish. Their long, thin snout and rows of sharp teeth that fit together help them strike quickly at fish in the water.
Young gharials have a wider menu. As well as fish, they eat insects, frogs and crustaceans, the group of animals that includes crabs and shrimps. That long, fish-catching snout is why gharials are sometimes called fish-eating crocodiles.
Adults are fish specialists, while juveniles also take insects, crustaceans and frogs (Smithsonian's National Zoo). The jaws carry 106 to 110 sharp teeth, according to Animal Diversity Web, and the long, slender snout, which becomes longer and thinner as the animal ages, lets the gharial strike quickly at fish in the water.
Because gharials depend on fish, they also depend on healthy rivers. The IUCN assessment notes that fishing nets are a major cause of death, and the Smithsonian points out that overfishing in the gharial's shrinking rivers reduces its food.
Did you know?
Gharials lay very big eggs.
Gharial eggs are the biggest of any crocodilian, about 160 grams each.
At about 160 grams on average, gharial eggs are the largest laid by any crocodilian (Smithsonian's National Zoo).
A snout like no other
The gharial's snout is long and thin.
It has lots of sharp teeth. Its feet are webbed for swimming. Its legs are weak, so on land it slides on its tummy.
Look at the photo: the gharial's snout sticks far out in front of its eyes. Inside are more than a hundred sharp teeth. Its feet are webbed, which helps it swim.
On land, gharials are clumsy. Their leg muscles are too weak to lift their bodies high, so they push themselves along on their bellies. That is called belly-sliding. A grown-up male's ghara, the bump on his snout, helps him make a loud buzzing sound and is a signal that females notice.
The snout is a long rostrum lined with interlocking teeth; Animal Diversity Web counts 106 to 110, and notes extensively webbed feet. Adults are dark brown to greenish brown above and pale below, and young gharials have dark bands that usually fade with age.
On land the leg muscles cannot lift the body clear of the ground, so gharials move by belly-sliding. The male's ghara has several jobs: it partly covers the nostrils, acts as a resonator for a loud buzzing call, and is a visual signal in courtship (Smithsonian's National Zoo). The animal in this photo is a female, so she has no ghara.
Growing up
A mother gharial digs a nest in the sand by the river.
She lays about 40 eggs. When the babies hatch, lots of them stay together in a big group. Grown-ups watch over them.
In spring, female gharials dig nests in sandbanks beside the river and lay about 40 eggs. The mothers guard the nests while the eggs warm in the sand for two to two and a half months. The temperature of the nest decides whether the babies are boys or girls.
The babies hatch in late May and June. Their mothers open the nests, but they do not carry the babies to the water. Instead, babies from many nests gather into one big group called a crèche, guarded for a month or two by mothers and usually one big male.
On the Chambal, courtship and mating take place around mid-February, and females nest from mid-March to early April in seasonally exposed sandbanks, laying an average of 40 eggs. Incubation takes 2 to 2.5 months, with mostly females guarding the nests, and the sex of the young is set by incubation temperature (Animal Diversity Web). The Smithsonian notes that gharial eggs, about 160 grams on average, are the largest of any crocodilian.
Hatching runs from late May to mid-June. Females open the nests but do not carry the young; hatchlings from many nests form crèches of hundreds to a thousand or more, guarded by females and typically one large male for one to two months, until rising monsoon waters disperse them. Females mature at about 3 meters and males at about 4 meters (Smithsonian), at about 8 and 15 years respectively (Animal Diversity Web).
River travelers
Gharials love to lie in the sun on sandbanks.
The sun warms their bodies. Some big gharials swim a long way up and down the river.
Like all reptiles, gharials warm up using the world around them, so they spend a lot of time basking on sandbanks, especially in winter.
Gharials are also travelers. Scientists following them on the Chambal River found that grown-ups, mostly nesting mothers, swim 100 to 200 kilometers or more between seasons. Males show off with head slaps on the water and buzzing calls.
Gharials bask a great deal, more in winter than in summer (Animal Diversity Web). Adults gather for mating and nesting in the dry season, and the IUCN assessment describes social hierarchies and long seasonal migrations: the Gharial Ecology Project has recorded movements of 100 to 200 kilometers or more by adults on the Chambal, mainly by nesting females.
Courtship and territorial displays include head slaps on the water and buzzing calls made with the ghara. The Smithsonian describes the mating system as polygamous, with one male defending a territory shared with several females.
Did you know?
The name gharial comes from a word for a clay pot.
The name gharial comes from ghara, a word for a clay pot, because the bump on a male's snout looks like one. Europeans misread it as gavial, so both names are used.
The Smithsonian's National Zoo explains that gharial derives from ghara, a mud pot, and that a European misreading produced the alternative name gavial.
Saving the gharial
There are not many gharials left.
Dams change their rivers, and fishing nets can trap them. People in India and Nepal protect gharial rivers and help baby gharials grow up safely.
The gharial is critically endangered, the highest level of danger before an animal disappears from the wild. Surveys from 2010 to 2017 suggest there are only about 650 grown-ups in the whole world.
Dams and barrages change how rivers flow, gharials get caught in fishing nets, and people dig sand and rocks out of the riverbanks where they nest. To help, India and Nepal protect gharial rivers, and people collect eggs, raise the young safely and release them into the wild.
The IUCN lists the gharial as Critically Endangered (A2bce; assessed December 2017, published 2019), inferring a decline of more than 80 percent over three generations (75 years, since 1943) from a past population inferred at more than 20,000 adults. Counts in 2010 to 2017 put the adult population at about 650 (range 300 to 900), and the current trend is listed as increasing.
The main causes of decline are dams and barrages that disrupt river flow, deaths in fishing nets and, historically, hunting for hides; sand mining and boulder removal along banks are serious current threats. In one winter in the late 2000s, about 110 gharials died on the lower Chambal; the deaths were linked to gout and kidney failure, and what triggered them is still not known. India gave the species full protection in the 1970s; captive-reared juveniles are released on the Chambal, though the assessment notes their success is not well monitored.
IUCN Red List
How is the gharial doing in the wild?
- Least Concern
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered (this animal)
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Critically Endangered
At extremely high risk of disappearing from the wild.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.2
Amazing facts
-
The name gharial comes from a word for a clay pot.
The name gharial comes from ghara, a word for a clay pot, because the bump on a male's snout looks like one. Europeans misread it as gavial, so both names are used.
The Smithsonian's National Zoo explains that gharial derives from ghara, a mud pot, and that a European misreading produced the alternative name gavial.
-
Gharials lay very big eggs.
Gharial eggs are the biggest of any crocodilian, about 160 grams each.
At about 160 grams on average, gharial eggs are the largest laid by any crocodilian (Smithsonian's National Zoo).
-
A gharial has more than one hundred teeth.
A gharial has 106 to 110 sharp teeth in its long jaws.
Animal Diversity Web counts 106 to 110 sharp teeth in the jaws and notes that the snout becomes longer and thinner as a gharial ages.
-
Baby gharials stay together in a big group.
Baby gharials from many nests join into one big group, called a crèche, that can hold hundreds or even more than a thousand babies.
Hatchling crèches can number from hundreds to a thousand or more, guarded by females and typically one large male (IUCN Red List assessment).
Words to know
- crocodilian
- a crocodile, alligator, caiman or gharial
- ghara
- the round bump on the tip of a grown-up male gharial's snout
- crèche
- a big group of young animals looked after together
- sandbank
- a raised strip of sand in or beside a river
- bask
- to lie in the sun to warm up
- critically endangered
- at very high risk of disappearing from the wild
Discovery challenge
-
What do gharials like to eat most?
What do grown-up gharials mostly eat?
What is the main food of adult gharials?
- Fish
- Grass
- Fruit
Show the answer
Fish
Gharials catch fish with their long, thin snouts.
Adults eat mostly fish; young gharials also eat insects, small crabs and shrimps, and frogs.
Adults are fish specialists; juveniles also take insects, crustaceans and frogs.
-
What is a ghara?
What is a gharial's ghara?
In gharials, what is the ghara?
- A round bump on the tip of a male's snout
- A gharial's nest in the sand
- A baby gharial
Show the answer
A round bump on the tip of a male's snout
Grown-up boy gharials grow a round bump on the tip of their snout.
The ghara is a bump on the snout tip of grown-up males. It helps them make a loud buzzing sound.
A bulbous growth on mature males' snouts that partly covers the nostrils, resonates a buzzing call and signals to females.
-
Where do gharials live?
Where do gharials spend almost all their lives?
Which habitat is the gharial adapted to?
- Up in tall trees
- In big rivers
- In dry deserts
Show the answer
In big rivers
Gharials live in big rivers and rest on sandy banks.
They live in rivers and leave the water mostly to bask and nest on sandbanks.
Large, flowing rivers with sandbanks; weak legs make them poor movers on land.
-
What do baby gharials do after they hatch?
What happens to baby gharials after they hatch?
What happens to gharial hatchlings after they hatch?
- They fly away
- They stay in a big group watched by grown-ups
- They are carried to the water in their mother's mouth
Show the answer
They stay in a big group watched by grown-ups
Lots of babies stay together, and grown-ups keep watch.
Babies from many nests gather in a crèche, guarded by mothers and usually one big male. Gharial mothers do not carry them in their mouths.
Females open the nests but do not transport the young; hatchlings form crèches guarded by females and typically one large male for one to two months.
Places where you might see it
-
Watch
Country
India
India is a huge country in South Asia, shaped like a big triangle pointing into the Indian Ocean. The Himalayas rise along its north, heavy monsoon rains arrive every summer, and about 1.46 billion people (2025) live there, speaking hundreds of languages.
-
Watch
Country
Nepal
Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia, between India and China. It climbs from flat, warm farmland in the south to the snowy Himalaya in the north, where Mount Everest stands, and about 29.6 million people lived there in 2025.
-
Watch
Natural wonder
Ganges
The Ganges, called the Ganga in India, flows about 2,510 kilometers from a glacier in the Himalayas across the plains of northern India to the Bay of Bengal, through India and Bangladesh. Its basin is home to hundreds of millions of people who farm, fish and travel on it. For many Hindus it is the holiest of rivers. Near the sea it builds a giant delta with the Brahmaputra.
Explore next
-
Watch
Animal
Saltwater crocodile
The saltwater crocodile is the largest reptile alive today. It lives in rivers, swamps and estuaries from India to northern Australia, can cope with fresh water and seawater, and sometimes swims far out across the open ocean to reach distant islands.
-
Watch
Animal
American crocodile
The American crocodile is a large reptile of warm coasts and mangrove swamps, from the southern tip of Florida through Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. It is shy, it basks in the sun to warm up, and mother crocodiles carry their babies to the water.
-
Watch
Country
India
India is a huge country in South Asia, shaped like a big triangle pointing into the Indian Ocean. The Himalayas rise along its north, heavy monsoon rains arrive every summer, and about 1.46 billion people (2025) live there, speaking hundreds of languages.
-
Watch
Country
Nepal
Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia, between India and China. It climbs from flat, warm farmland in the south to the snowy Himalaya in the north, where Mount Everest stands, and about 29.6 million people lived there in 2025.
-
Watch
Natural wonder
Ganges
The Ganges, called the Ganga in India, flows about 2,510 kilometers from a glacier in the Himalayas across the plains of northern India to the Bay of Bengal, through India and Bangladesh. Its basin is home to hundreds of millions of people who farm, fish and travel on it. For many Hindus it is the holiest of rivers. Near the sea it builds a giant delta with the Brahmaputra.
-
Watch
3D
Animal
Tiger
The tiger is a huge cat with orange fur and dark stripes that help it hide in tall grass and forest shadows. It lives alone, hunts deer and wild pigs, and loves to swim. Wild tigers live only in Asia, and they are endangered.
-
Watch
Animal
Indian cobra
The Indian cobra, or spectacled cobra, lives across South Asia, from Pakistan to Sri Lanka. It raises its head and spreads a hood marked with a pattern like a pair of glasses, it eats lots of rats and mice, and it is venomous, so it is an animal to admire from far away.
-
Watch
Animal
Aldabra giant tortoise
The Aldabra giant tortoise is one of the largest land tortoises on Earth. Wild ones live on Aldabra Atoll, a ring of coral islands in the Indian Ocean, where more than 100,000 of them graze, browse and shape the land like elephants do in Africa. They can live for more than 100 years.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Describe how the gharial's long, thin snout and many teeth suit a diet of fish.
- Explain why gharials depend on rivers and sandbanks, and why they move poorly on land.
- Describe the gharial life cycle, including nests in sandbanks and crèches of hatchlings.
- Understand why the gharial is Critically Endangered and how people are helping it.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might an animal that eats only fish be in trouble when a river is dammed or overfished?
- How is caring for babies in a crèche different from the way your family looks after children?
- What could people who fish in gharial rivers do to help gharials?
Try at home or in class
- Measure 6 meters along a hallway or sidewalk with a tape measure, and lie down next to it to feel how long a big male gharial is.
- Draw a gharial life-cycle comic in four boxes: a nest in a sandbank, hatching, the crèche, and a grown-up gharial in the river.
Key vocabulary: crocodilian, ghara, crèche, sandbank, bask, critically endangered
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Gavialis gangeticus (Gharial), global Red List assessment 2019 , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Gharial , Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute
- Gavialis gangeticus (Indian gharial) , Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.