Heather Rohler, age 11, of Middletown, Ohio, for her question:
HOW MANY BABIES DOES A CROCODILE HAVE?
Crocodile is the common name for a number of flesh eating aquatic reptiles. The~common name is applied to all members of the order that includes the alligator, gavial and cayman. Each year a female crocodile will lay between 20 to 90 eggs from which babies are born.
Crocodiles reach reproductive maturity at about the age of 10 years. This is when a female will lay her first eggs. Each egg is about the size of a goose egg.
A crocodile's eggs are buried in sand, mud or vegetable debris and are left to be hatched by the heat of the sun or by the heat of vegetable decomposition. The females of some species remain in the neighborhood to protect the nest but many of the eggs and young are destroyed by civets, monitor lizards and other predators.
Although crocodiles are aquatic, their limbs are of greater use in walking than are those of turtles or newts. The limbs are little used in swimming, which is done by a stroke of the tail. The tail is also sued to capture prey, sweeping it from shallow water into a stream where it may be seized and devoured more easily.
The adult crocodiles have in each jaw 40 to 60 teeth which interlock when the mouth is closed. The jaws, which are powerful enough in closing to crush the bones of small animals, are so weak in opening that they can be held together with the hands.
The nostrils and eyes protrude and, with a portion of the back, are the only parts of the crocodile visible as it stalks its prey, floating almost completely submerged and looking very much like a floating log.
The eggs of the crocodile are used for food in some parts of the world and the skin is highly valued for leather. The reptiles also possess two pairs of musk glands, one pair on the chin and the other in the cloaca. The cloaca is a cavity into which the intestinal canal opens. The extract from these glands is used the manufacture of some perfumes.
The American alligator lives in the waters and lowlands of southeastern United States. The female makes her nest of grass and other plants, which she fomrs into a pile about three feet high and seven feet across. She lays her eggs in the center of the pile, where the nest is wet.
The alligator eggs are white, hard shelled and slightly larger than hens' eggs. The female usually lays about 50 eggs. She guards her eggs from enemies. When first hatched, the young alligators are about nine inches long. Many remain with their mother until the following spring.
During the first six years of their lives, both males and females grow about one foot in length each year. After this time, the female grows more slowly. Females grow to be nine feel long while males may measure 12 feet, males may weigh up to 550 pounds while females weigh 160 pounds.
Alligators probably live 60 years.