Orinoco Crocodile Facts

Orinoco Crocodile Profile

When God made all the animals, along with the rest of the universe, around 6000 years ago, he started with a crocodile.

But while he was trying to plant layers of misleading fossil evidence to trick a hairless ape into going to hell for some reason, the crocodile kept pestering him for fish. 

The croc became yappy and annoying, so God grabbed its snout and squeezed it. The result was a croc with a chunky, prehistoric body and a squished nose and it went to live in the Orinoco River basin in South America. 

Orinoco Crocodile Facts Overview

Orinoco crocodiles are one of the most endangered animals in the world, yet they are some of the largest reptiles we have left.

They’ve been greatly reduced in size and number from rampant hunting in the 1900s – something which has now mostly ceased, but the race is now on for conservationists to turn the tide in the face of habitat destruction and climate change, to protect and repopulate this ancient giant. 

Interesting Orinoco Crocodile Facts

1. They’re true crocodiles 

Despite being far less popular and famous than the salties and the Nile crocodile, Orinoco crocodiles are no less members of the genus Crocodylus. 

This genus probably came from Africa and radiated out while all the land masses were smushed up against one another.

Unsurprisingly, their closest relatives are the other American species, such as the American crocodile and the Cuban and Morelet’s crocodile.

But they also appear to be more closely related to the Nile crocodile than the other African species. ¹

2. They’re funny-lookin’

These crocodiles have a highly unusual body type, which gives us some clues as to their lifestyle. They’re extremely wide animals, tapered at both ends as if their muzzle has been squeezed but a large hand into a slender beak at the end. 

But the base of this beak is still very wide, which gives the impression that it’s able to pin down fish or swallow chunks of beefy mammal, depending on where the mood dictates. 

A crocodile this size is clearly going to be an apex predator and has little to worry about from predators (other than humans), and there are further clues from local people who suggest that it’s such a good fish hunter it’s wiping out the local populations. 

This will be an exaggeration, and perhaps a bit of projection – it’s probably the local fishing communities who are wiping them out. But it’s safe to say that this croc is likely to be a generalist hunter. ²

3. They pack a punch

Another clue to their behaviour comes from a research paper comparing the bite force of multiple crocodilians. 

The Orinoco croc performed terrifyingly, recording an entry of over 6000 Newtons, and as the authors suggest, showing what sheer mass can do for your bite strength. 

One of the proposed mechanisms for biting this hard in water is the narrow snout, which would reduce drag while maintaining a lot of the speed. 

4. They’re good mothers

Old reports of people trying to study these crocs in captivity tell of highly protective mothers, who will aggressively defend their clutch and the subsequent hatchlings for up to three years in some cases.

This is a long time for a crocodile to care about anything, and an impressive feat of motherhood. 

Researchers also talk of mothers refusing to allow anyone anywhere near them when they’re brooding, which is out of character for what is usually a docile and chilled-out crocodile, unlikely to threaten a human outside of this context.  

5. They’re still not well-known

These sorts of clues are all very useful to researchers, who can barely find any live specimens to study.

This is a species that was not researched before it was reduced to a slither of its former glory, and the remaining few are hanging on due to how remote and complex their river systems are – they simply haven’t been discovered by hunters yet. 

Having been hunted for their skins for so long, though, one thing is easy to establish, and that’s just how big they were. 

6. They were once enormous

This species is one of the largest reptiles on Earth, and certainly the largest predator in the Americas. 

Old specimens have been reported to reach almost 7m long and weigh 900 kg. Sadly, they don’t exist at these sizes anymore, and whether that’s just because the remaining few aren’t old enough or whether all the genes for gigantism in the species have been wiped out, is unclear. 

Now, the largest examples are closer to 5 metres, and half the weight they once were. 

7. But they are now critically endangered

The situation for this species was considered “Very serious” by the ‘80s, with the stragglers holding on by sheer virtue of the complexity of the river systems they inhabited. 

Hunting for Orinoco skins went totally overboard in the 1900s, and in a period of 30 years, more than 254,000 skins from large adults were exported. Over 75 years, the population declined by over 80% and their numbers now are likely around 200 to 250. 

But even this is confused by the available data and lack of it. 

7. They are rarely hunted now

Since CITES blocked any trade of products from this species, the vast majority of hunting has stopped.

They’re still persecuted by fishermen, threatened by habitat destruction and the limited number of individuals from whom to build a viable population, but the major threat seems to have been curtailed. 

Reintroduction programs have released hundreds of them over the last two decades, but the limited availably of research and monitoring leaves their success open to interpretation. 

Orinoco Crocodile Fact-File Summary

Scientific Classification

1. E Hekkala (2021), “Paleogenomics illuminates the evolutionary history of the extinct Holocene “horned” crocodile of Madagascar, Voay robustus”, PubMed Central.
2. Gregory M Erickson (2012), “Insights into the Ecology and Evolutionary Success of Crocodilians Revealed through Bite-Force and Tooth-Pressure Experimentation”, PubMed Central.