Reptiles — Blog — Sophie Wolvin

“Q: So what’s the point of a crocodile/gator? What contribution do they bring to the food chain? and such?”

— Anonymous

You mean besides just being freaking adorable dorks all the time????

Well my friend, I hope you are prepared for the long-winded summary on predator-prey population dynamics that you have unleashed here.

As a general rule, any apex predator is crucial to an ecosystem, specifically because they regulate population numbers of their prey species and leave remains that can be exploited by smaller animals. Crocodilians are typically the largest freshwater predator in their ranges, and due to their ambush hunting method and amphibious* lifestyle, they have a huge range of prey species. They will eat anything they can catch, of any size, including fish, amphibians, other reptiles, both large and small mammals, birds, people - the list goes on and on. But let’s get a bit more specific.

Alligators (both American and Chinese) are allogenic ecosystem engineers, meaning that - like beavers, caterpillars and woodpeckers** - alligators physically change their environment and, as a result, change the resource availability in those areas. Adult alligators will dig and expand “gator holes” that stay filled with water even during droughts, allowing tons of other species to survive dry periods.

On top of that, American alligators are currently the only predator large enough to make a dent in the invasive Burmese python population that is literally destroying the Everglades as we speak. Unfortunately, the predation goes both ways.

Crocodiles are a bit tougher to describe, mostly because there are a whole pile of species, but all are important in prey population control and particularly in scavenging carcasses. Crocodiles have the strongest stomach acid of any vertebrate, and as such can eat just about anything, including rotting carcasses that would otherwise pollute water systems.

I’m not going to go into all of the species of crocodile, because it would take several weeks, but I will say that the saltwater crocodile is pretty neat - not only as the largest crocodilian, and the one with the largest range of prey species - but because it is currently the only predator in Australia that has been shown to be able to survive eating the highly toxic and invasive cane toad***.

Even though you didn’t ask, I’m gonna just touch on the two other types of crocodilians, because I love them. Gharials are highly specialized crocodilians that would normally regulate fish populations - if they weren’t critically endangered - and caimans are smaller, highly adaptable crocodilians. Cuvier’s dwarf caiman in particular is a keystone species.

A couple other things about crocodilians to chew on:

Crocodilian meat and leather is a HUGE market, and is fueling conservation and breeding efforts that might otherwise not be there
Crocodilians are a very effective tourist draw (read: more conservation)
Abandoned nests turn into peat, also important for wetland ecosystems
Crocodile tears are a real thing but most likely not due to emotion

TL;DR: CROCODILIANS ARE SUPER IMPORTANT, MAINLY BECAUSE THEY EAT STUFF

*Except gharials. As a rule, gharials look pretty dorky on land.

**Humans are also technically in this grouping, but I didn’t want to insult alligators with the comparison.

***Not proven as a possible population control, however. Too bad.