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Carl the Nile Crocodile (17/26)


This is also part of this series: All About Animals (26)

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Subjects: Animal Behaviour, Animals, Evolution, Geography, Natural History, Nature

Grade Level: K-Gr3
Producer: BBC
Closed Captioned: No		 Running Time: 25 mins
Country of Origin: Great Britain
Study Guide: No
Copyright Date: 2004
Available in French: No

Crocodiles have been around for 70 million years, since the age of the dinosaurs. They grow up to 6 metres long and can live for over 50 years. Crocodiles spend much of their life in water, above and below the surface. It is nearly a week since Carl hatched from an egg, and he is just 24cm long from his snout to tip of his tail. He has more than 30 brothers and sisters, and they all live with their mother in Zambia's Luangwa River. For 5 weeks, she will provide them with loving care and protect them from predators, including other adult crocs. Reptiles emerge into the world with most of the skills they need to survive; Carl could walk and swim right away. You can see him catching his first meal - a spider. Carl is cold-blooded and unable produce heat within his body, but already he knows how to warm himself up with the sun's rays. Carl shares the Luangwa's waterways with other animals including hippos, impala, baboons, zebra, elephants and beeeaters. When he's grown up Carl will hunt much bigger animals like antelope and buffalo but his main food will be fish. Crocs have a very special device for detecting their prey. Inside a crocodile's mouth are receptors far more powerful than human taste buds which sense tiny chemical changes in the water, enabling a croc to taste a potential meal from nearly a kilometre away. It will be another 8 years before he's fully grown, but Carl already has a taste for life as one of Africa's top predators.

Links: http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/

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