Comparing big cats - differences/changes with time

[Ashutosh]

@Balam, and that exactly is the issue. You are comparing the historical size of orinoco crocs to present size of Sundarbans saltwater crocs . As for hunting, saltwater crocs in India were hunted just as brutally as orinoco crocs (they were once found all along the eastern coast, but once the mangroves disappeared so did the crocs). They numbered 96 in 1976 in mainland India (except Andamans). Use the same barometer for both.

And, historically the Sundarbans crocs were part of the same contiguous population as the ones from Bhitarkanika and like I said the distance is only 120 kilometre between these two landscapes and there have been specimens of skulls of 100 cm found here historically. 10% of all adult saltwater crocs in Bhitarkanika  exceed 6 metres. In fact, if you put GPS collar on a few of them today, you will see a few migrating to Sundarbans (they have been migrating as Bhitarkanika is reaching it’s carrying capacity).

So, instead of using two different standards, use the same historical sizes argument for the saltwater crocs from Sundarbans. Unless you want to argue that orinoco crocs are bigger than saltwater crocs (not just any saltwater crocs as Bhitarkanika houses couple of croc skull bigger than any skull found in Australia), it is all part of wild speculation with very little basis in merit. Reply