Mugger crocodile

Muggers wait very still for food to come close.

Babies eat bugs.

Bigger muggers catch bigger animals.

Muggers are meat eaters that will eat almost any animal smaller than themselves. They are sit-and-wait hunters: they lie still in the water, often with just their eyes and nose showing, until prey comes close. They can even catch birds and bats that swoop down to the water's surface.

Baby muggers eat insects and other small creatures such as crustaceans. As they grow, they eat bigger prey.

The Animal Diversity Web describes the mugger as an opportunistic carnivore and sit-and-wait predator that takes almost any animal smaller than itself, including fish, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and eggs, and even birds and bats feeding at the water's surface. Hatchlings eat insects and other small invertebrates, including crustaceans, and prey size rises as they grow. A meal can be 10 to 25% of body weight: more than 2 meters long, a mugger can eat about 3 kilograms at once, while one under 0.5 meters eats about 150 grams.

Muggers dig burrows to hide from the heat.

Sometimes they walk a long way over land.

Muggers of every age, from yearlings to big adults, dig burrows. The burrows help them stay safe from very hot or very cold weather. In Iran, muggers sometimes dig two burrows close together, used by one or more crocodiles.

Muggers were thought to stay in one place, but in India, Sri Lanka and Iran they have been seen making long treks over land. They also bask in the sun to warm up.

Whitaker and Whitaker (1984) recorded burrows in Sri Lanka and India dug by yearlings, sub-adults and adults; in Iran muggers sometimes dig two burrows close together, used by one or more animals (Mobaraki 2002). The IUCN presumes these burrows are refuges from hot daytime temperatures and notes they are critical for crocodiles in harsh environments (Whitaker et al. 2007).

Long-distance overland treks are reported from Gir in India, from Sri Lanka and from Iran (IUCN). The Animal Diversity Web adds that muggers do not migrate seasonally, that they stroke and rub each other's heads during courtship, and that females defend their burrows.

Muggers are in danger in the wild.

People have taken over many of their homes.

Parks help keep them safe.

The mugger is listed as vulnerable. Farms and factories have taken over much of its home, and people have poached muggers for their skins and meat and taken their eggs. Some have also been caught in fishing nets.

Today healthy mugger populations are found only in protected areas, and in India and Sri Lanka their numbers are stable or growing. Between 1978 and 1992, India released more than 1,000 captive-bred muggers into protected areas. Muggers can be dangerous, so people should keep well away from them.

Choudhury and de Silva assessed Crocodylus palustris as Vulnerable under A2cd (Global; assessed 30 June 2009, published 2013; 'needs updating'), inferring a 30% decline over three generations (75 years) from habitat destruction and illegal poaching that is now thought to have stopped. A 2013 workshop in Colombo estimated 5,700 to 8,700 non-hatchlings in the wild, including 3,021 to 4,287 in India and 2,400 to 3,500 in Sri Lanka; numbers in the National Chambal Sanctuary rose from 105 to 226 over 16 years, but declines continue in Pakistan, Iran and Nepal.

Threats have included agricultural and industrial expansion, entanglement in fishing gear, egg collection, poaching for skin and meat, and persecution by fishers who saw muggers as pests; conflicts with people are rising as settlements spread into mugger habitat. The species is on CITES Appendix I. Between 1978 and 1992 India released 1,193 captive-bred muggers into 28 protected areas, and protection is moderately effective in protected areas of India, Sri Lanka and Iran.