New Guinea crocodile

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New Guinea crocodile
Temporal range:
Ma[1]
↓
New Guinea crocodile at Bandung Zoo in West Java, Indonesia

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[2]
CITES Appendix II (CITES)[3]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauromorpha
Clade: Archosauriformes
Order: Crocodilia
Family: Crocodylidae
Genus: Crocodylus
Species:
C. novaeguineae
Binomial name
Crocodylus novaeguineae
(Schmidt, 1928)
Range shown in green (including Hall's New Guinea crocodile)
Synonyms[4]

C. n. novaeguineae

The New Guinea crocodile (Crocodylus novaeguineae) is a small species of

Least Concern
".

Taxonomy and etymology

The New Guinea crocodile was first described by the American

Negros, Samar and Mindanao. Most authorities now consider that the Philippine crocodile is an entirely separate species.[4] DNA sequencing data reported in 2011 showed that the Philippine crocodile is, in part, paraphyletic with regard to the New Guinea crocodile, and that the latter may constitutes a population within the Philippine crocodile.[6] Among their two samples for the New Guinea crocodile, one was part of the Philippine crocodile clade and the other was separate, estimated to have diverged 2.6–6.8 million years ago. Both samples were taken from captives (could potentially be misidentified or hybrids) and the result should therefore be treated with caution.[6]

The

Latin and means "of New Guinea". Other common names for this crocodile include New Guinea freshwater crocodile, Singapore large grain, Puk Puk, Buaya air tawar and Wahne huala.[4]

Crocodylus halli, also known as Hall's New Guinea crocodile, is the closest relative of the New Guinea Crocodile. It is also endemic to the island of New Guinea, where it inhabits the lower part of the island, located south of the New Guinea highlands. Crocodylus halli was declared a separate species in 2019, and was named after Philip M. Hall, a researcher at the University of Florida who performed the initial studies to clarify the species' distinctiveness.[7][8] Both species look very much alike, however they differ both genetically and regarding the bone structure of their skulls.[9]

Phylogeny

The

Phylogenetic evidence supports Crocodylus diverging from its closest recent relative, the extinct Voay of Madagascar, around 25 million years ago, near the Oligocene/Miocene boundary.[10]

Below is a

stratigraphic (fossil age) data,[11] as revised by the 2021 Hekkala et al. paleogenomics study using DNA extracted from the extinct Voay.[10]

Note: Crocodylus halli is missing in this diagram, as it was declared a separate species a year after Lee & Yates published their findings.

Crocodylinae

Voay†

Crocodylus
Asia+Australia

Crocodylus johnstoni Freshwater crocodile

Crocodylus novaeguineae New Guinea crocodile

Crocodylus mindorensis Philippine crocodile

Crocodylus porosus Saltwater crocodile

Crocodylus siamensis Siamese crocodile

Crocodylus palustris Mugger crocodile

Africa+New World

Crocodylus suchus West African crocodile

Crocodylus niloticus Nile crocodile

New World

Crocodylus moreletii Morelet's crocodile

Crocodylus rhombifer Cuban crocodile

Crocodylus intermedius Orinoco crocodile

Crocodylus acutus American crocodile

Description

The New Guinea crocodile grows to a length of up to 3.5 m (11 ft) for males and 2.7 m (8.9 ft) for females, and can weigh up to 200 kg (440 lb), although most specimens are smaller.

Siamese crocodile (C. siamensis). The colouring is similar to that of the freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnsoni) of northern Australia, but the snout is somewhat shorter and broader.[4][16]

Distribution and habitat

This crocodile is to be found in the freshwater swamps, marshes and lakes of northern New Guinea, particularly in the interior.

DNA analysis has revealed these to be genetically distinct species,[18] and there are some differences in their morphology and behavior.[19] There are estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000 New Guinea and Hall's New Guinea crocodiles in the wild.[4]

Behaviour

At Bandung Zoo, West Java, Indonesia

New Guinea crocodiles have a mostly aquatic lifestyle and are largely nocturnal. They spend much of the day underwater, often with their nostrils and eyes above the surface. Powerful side-to-side movements of their tails propel them through the water and they use both tail and legs to steer. When on land, they favour shady, dense areas of undergrowth.[4] They tend to bask in a group during the day, dispersing at night to feed.[16]

Females become sexually mature when about 1.6 to 2 metres (5 ft 3 in to 6 ft 7 in) long and males at about 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in). Eggs are laid about 14 days after mating. In the northern population, breeding takes place during the dry season between August and October. A floating nest composed of vegetation is made in a shallow water location such as in an overgrown channel, at the edge of a lake, on a scroll swale or beside a stream. A clutch of between 22 and 45 eggs is laid and covered with further vegetation. In the southern population, the wet season is chosen for reproduction. The nest is sometimes built in similar locations to the northern nests, but is more often on land, and a smaller number of rather larger eggs is laid. In both populations, the mother stays near the nest during the incubation period, which lasts about 80 days. When the eggs start to hatch, the emerging young are quite vocal, and both male and female crocodiles have been observed transporting hatching and newly hatched young to open water, carrying them delicately in their mouths.[4][16]

Newly hatched New Guinea crocodiles feed on aquatic insects, spiders, tadpoles, freshwater snails, frogs, fish and small mammals. As they grow, so does the size of their prey and their consumption of fish rises, but they still will eat anything of a worthwhile size that they can find. An adult's diet is largely fish, caught by sweeping the snout sideways and snapping at the prey, but also includes shrimps, crabs, frogs, snakes, birds and medium-sized mammals. A crocodile catches its prey by stealth with a flick of its head, impaling it with its sharp teeth and gripping and crushing it. The jaws cannot move sideways to chew the food; instead, the crocodile's head is tossed to move the prey to the back of the mouth before the prey is swallowed whole. This crocodile is surprisingly agile and can lunge its body upward into the air to catch bats, flying birds, and leaping fish.[16] It can also probe into the mud at the bottom of a river or swamp with its snout to search for crabs and mollusks.[16]

Adult and young New Guinea crocodiles have a range of vocalisations. An adult female can produce a repeated throaty "roar" when approached by another adult. The young start communicating with each other while still in the egg; this may help synchronise hatching. Newly hatched juveniles use various yelps and grunts. When startled, a warning sound emitted by one will send all the juveniles diving to the bottom of the water. Adults in the vicinity respond with growls, threats, and attacks.[16] The distress noises of a youngster when handled at a ranching facility was observed to cause all the larger animals to become involved in frenzied activity, with some rushing towards the juvenile and others thrashing about in the water and slapping their heads down on the surface.[16]

Status and conservation

At Wuppertal Zoo

The IUCN listed this crocodile as being "

Least Concern" in 1996. At the time it was stated that the animal has a large area of suitable habitat and seemed to be plentiful. Its status has not been reassessed since then. It is included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).[2]

The skin of the New Guinea crocodile is valuable and in the 1950s and 1960s the animals in the northern population were heavily hunted to a point where they might have become extinct. Around 1970, legislation was put in place and they received some protection.[4] In the period 1977 to 1980, the harvest of wild skins was over 20,000 per year but in the 1980s this declined to 12,000 to 20,000. As well as this, some 2,500 to 10,000 eggs and hatchlings were collected annually to raise on ranches. However, in 1995, the largest ranch on the island initiated a change of strategy to concentrate on raising the saltwater crocodile, and demand for the eggs and juveniles of the New Guinea crocodile dried up. Since then, cropping of wild animals has been controlled in both Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. In the former it is limited to a belly width of 25 to 51 cm (10 to 20 in) for wet skins and in the latter to salted skins with a belly width of 18 to 51 cm (7 to 20 in).[15] Some eggs and hatchlings are still removed from the nest and raised in enclosures and a similar programme has more recently been initiated for southern populations.[4]

2018 killing of New Guinea crocodiles

Main article: Crocodile attack

In July 2018, a man was reportedly killed by a saltwater crocodile in a breeding farm in West Papua, Indonesia. Locals then killed 292 saltwater and New Guinea crocodiles at the farm in revenge.[20][21]

See also

References

  1. PMID 34567843
    .
  2. ^
    doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-2.RLTS.T46591A3010398.en
    . Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  3. ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Britton, Adam (2009-01-01). "New Guinea Crocodile". Crocodilians: Natural History & Conservation. Florida Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  5. ^ Schmidt, Karl P. (1928). "A new crocodile from New Guinea". Field Museum of Natural History Publication 247. 12 (14): 177–181. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
  6. ^
    S2CID 7254442
    .
  7. ISSN 0045-8511
    .
  8. JSTOR 1445607
    .
  9. ^ "New species of crocodile discovered in museum collections: Crocodylus halli named after late scientist who started investigating the reptile's lineage". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2022-03-07.
  10. ^
    PMID 33907305
    .
  11. PMID 30051855
    .
  12. ^
    ISBN 9782880326012
    .
  13. PMID 22431965
    .
  14. ^ Naish, Darren (2012-06-24). "Tetrapod Zoology: Crocodiles of New Guinea, crocodiles of the Philippines". Scientific American. Retrieved 2014-05-13.
  15. ^ a b c Cox, Jack H. (2010). S.C. Manolis; C. Stevenson (eds.). "New Guinea Freshwater Crocodile: Crocodylus novaeguineae" (PDF). Crocodiles. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. Third Edition. Crocodile Specialist Group, Darwin. pp. 90–93. Retrieved 2014-04-13.
  16. ^
    ISBN 9781853910920
    .
  17. ISSN 0045-8511
    .
  18. PMID 21463698
    .
  19. JSTOR 1445607
    .
  20. ^ "Indonesia mob slaughters nearly 300 crocodiles in revenge killing". BBC. 2018-07-16. Retrieved 2018-07-19.
  21. ^ Osborne, Simon (2018-07-16). "Bloodthirsty mob slaughters 300 crocodiles in revenge after villager eaten alive". The Express. Retrieved 2018-07-19.

External links

Wikispecies has information related to Crocodylus novaeguineae.
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