Gharial

The gharial is a very special kind of crocodile.

It is one of the longest crocodilians living today. Most gharials live in the rivers of northern India and Nepal. They are famous for being very good at living in the water. In fact, they are the most aquatic of all crocodilians. They only leave the river to bask in the sun or build nests on sandbanks.

Everything about the gharial helps it catch fish. It has a very long and narrow snout. This snout is about 3.5 times longer than the width of its skull base. Inside that snout are about 110 sharp, interlocking teeth. There are 27 to 29 teeth on the top and 25 to 26 on the bottom. This shape makes it easy to snap up fish in the water.

Adult males have a very unique feature on their noses. They grow a hollow, bulbous bump called a ghara. This name comes from a local word for an earthenware pot. The bump starts to grow when the male is about 11.5 years old. By age 15.5, the ghara is about 25 centimeters long. Males use this bump to make a loud hissing sound. This sound helps them attract females during mating season.

Humans have known about the gharial for a long time. The oldest pictures of them are 4,000 years old from the Indus Valley. In Hindu culture, the gharial is seen as the vehicle for the river goddess Ganga. Scientists have also spent a long time studying them. Johann Friedrich Gmelin gave them a scientific name in 1789. Later, Nicolaus Michael Oppel proposed the name Gavialis in 1811.

Today, the gharial faces a very hard job for survival. The wild population has dropped a lot since the 1930s. They now live in only 2% of the area they used to. They are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. People are losing river habitats to farming and sand mining. To help, India and Nepal have started programs to breed gharials. They release these captive-bred animals back into the rivers to help the population grow.