Crocodile and Big cats Interaction

[Shadow]

(10-17-2018, 08:17 PM)Pckts Wrote:

(10-17-2018, 06:20 PM)Shadow Wrote: I made a picture to compare in rough way. Here in photo is replica of Lolong, a crocodile 6m 17cm long. And there is a tiger from above, I scaled tiger as relatively big, from nose to back about 2 meters without tail.

Tiger is not in straight position and I tried to pay attention to it. But this hopefully gives a little bit perspective to it, that what kind of sizes we are talking about with biggest known crocs. And also, that what is crocodile torso size and head size there. Red lines are meters, blue lines feet. I made those pictures just for personal curiosity.

6m 17 cm is 20,24 feet btw.

Nice work @Shadow 
Another thing to note is that Lolong when alive would be far more dense and robust compared to a taxidermy.

@parvez 
I will not try to judge accurately the size of a mugger or any croc based off a video with little to scale from.
All I can go off of is actual verified sizes, and a mugger at "The average size of adult mugger crocodiles in Manghopir, Pakistan was cited as 2.89 m (9 ft 6 in), with an estimated average weight of around 100 kg (220 lb).[13] However, some muggers of around 3 m (9 ft 10 in) may weigh 195 kg (430 lb), as was one male caught by pakistani forestry, wildlife and fisheries department" isn't going to be comparable to a Saltie that is verified to be double the length and at 5x's the weight. 

A couple of interesting facts on Salties size

-If detached from the body, the head of a very large male crocodile can reportedly weigh over 200 kg (440 lb) alone, including the large muscles and tendons at the base of the skull that lend the crocodile its massive biting strength. (That's as heavy as a 9'10'' mugger)

-The weight of a crocodile increases approximately cubically as length increases (see square-cube law).[38] This explains why individuals at 6 m (19 ft 8 in) can weigh more than twice that of individuals at 5 m (16 ft).[26] In crocodiles, linear growth eventually decreases and they start getting bulkier at a certain point.[39] Dominant males also tend to outweigh others, as they maintain prime territories with access to better, more abundant prey. (Already being a more robust individual, they continue to put on mass while their growth slows)


My opinion is that a Tiger wouldn't want to have to fight off a large Mugger in the water, but it could do so, the same way you see Male Lions fight off smaller Nile Crocs in the water sometimes, but if a large Saltie wanted to prey on a Lion/Tiger in the water, there is little any cat could do about that. On land, I still doubt a cat could finish off a large Croc as well, the cat could do some damage but eventually that Croc will drag that Cat right into the water and the cat will have let go long before that happens. 

I would say that much to this issue, that on land it is hard to see too much chances for a croc unless it is very lucky and is able to hit with tail. Big cats are far more agile on dry land and should be able to get relatively easy on the back of the crocodile, when only chance of croc is try to escape to the water and get rid of tiger/lion/whaever big cat there is after it. It can´t fight in a way like lion would fight against tiger or tiger against lion, or like a bear for instance to any other predator. Tigers, lions and bears can all move fast and have teeth and claws to use. Crocodile on dry land is pretty much in trouble with any predator and even though they are surprisingly fast in some occasions, still it would be unfair to compare crocs with big cats there on land. One is in natural enviroment to do everything, other one not.

So in dry land croc needs to be a big one even to be able to escape, especially if big cat has experience. My personal opinion is, that even 3-4 meters long croc is quite possible for a big cat to kill if enough time and croc is far from water from some reason. A little bit same thing as with lions and hippos. Enough time with a hippo unable to find deep enough water and suddenly lion´s chances grow a lot. I find croc even more vulnerable, because it doesn´t have same kind of weight advantage even though it is in some ways faster in movement when struggling. 

In water it is different game of course. But after I saw one video where croc attacked a swimming lion making bite to the torso of lion, I started to think a little bit, that is biting force of crocodile in a way overrated. I mean, that it got lion under water, but lion was immediately able to struggle off and escape looking unharmed. Many times biting force seems to be measured in situation, when animal has something in mouth and jaws are almost shut. But croc has a big and long.... mouth, jaws, whatever is the word, I guess that everyone gets it. So when it has to open it really wide, is that bite actually so strong there? if it doesn´t get a good grip from leg for instance and able to bite hard, it looks like bigger animals have a good chance to struggle free.

I think, that even in water croc has best chances, when pretty good size difference and deep water. In water where big cats for instance reach bottom with hind legs, they are able to give back and also are surprisingly strong. Tail of croc, which on dry land is a formidable threat is again slower in water, so croc would need to get a strong bite and then start that whirling around to drown opponent. And it looks like to be not an easy task with tigers and lions. Maybe most times in water so, that both just disperse. Unless croc is really a big one.

I haven´t been interested about this topic, but after I looked some videos and thought a little bit, this kind of toughts came up. Especially on dry land when big cat gets itself on back of croc, croc is pretty much unable to fight back, it should roll over there to get rid of tiger for instance, but for some reason not doing that. And that is one thing to remember when looking at animals fighting. They do it as they do, not like we would like to or advice them to do. Reply