Desert Crocodile
Encyclopedia
The desert crocodile, Northwest African crocodile, or West African crocodile (Crocodylus suchus) is a species
of crocodile
distantly related to (but often confused with) the Nile crocodile
(C. niloticus). The crocodile inhabits the Republic of Congo, Uganda
, Gambia, Senegal
, Mauritania
, Burkina Faso
, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad
. Benin
, Zimbabwe
, Central African Republic
, and Nigeria
. At least one desert crocodile also exists at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park
.
claimed that crocodiles inhabiting the Nile (as the desert crocodile did in his day) have a symbiotic relationship
with certain birds like the Egyptian plover
, which enter the crocodile's mouth and pick leech
es that have been feeding on the crocodile's blood, but there is no evidence of this interaction actually occurring in any crocodile species, and it is most likely mythical or allegorical fiction.
The people of Ancient Egypt
worshiped Sobek
, a crocodile-god
associated with fertility
, protection, and the power of the pharaoh
. They had an ambivalent relationship with Sobek, as they did (and do) with the desert crocodile; sometimes they hunted crocodiles and reviled Sobek, and sometimes they saw him as a protector and source of pharonic power. The desert crocodile was known to be more docile than the Nile crocodile and was chosen by the Ancient Egyptians for spiritual rite
s, including mummification. A recent DNA test found all sampled mummified crocodiles from Grottes de Thebes, Grottes de Samoun, and Haute Egypt belonged to this species.
Sobek was depicted as a crocodile, as a mummified
crocodile, or as a man with the head
of a crocodile. The center of his worship was in the Middle Kingdom
city of Arsinoe
in the Faiyum Oasis (now Al Fayyum
), known as "Crocodilopolis
" by the Greek
s. Another major temple to Sobek is in Kom-Ombo, and other temples were scattered across the country.
Historically, the desert crocodile inhabited the Nile River in Lower Egypt
along with the Nile crocodile. Herodotus
wrote that the Ancient Egyptian priest
s were selective when picking crocodiles. Priests were aware of the difference between the two species, the desert crocodile being smaller and more docile, making it easier to catch and tame. Herodotus also indicated that some Egyptians kept crocodiles as pampered pets. In Sobek's temple in Arsinoe, a crocodile was kept in the pool of the temple, where it was fed, covered with jewelry, and worshipped. When the crocodiles died, they were embalmed, mummified, placed in sarcophagi, and then buried in a sacred tomb. Many mummified desert crocodiles and even crocodile eggs have been found in Egyptian tombs.
Spells
were used to appease crocodiles in Ancient Egypt, and even in modern times Nubian fishermen stuff and mount crocodiles over their doorsteps to ward against evil.
.
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
distantly related to (but often confused with) the Nile crocodile
Nile crocodile
The Nile crocodile or Common crocodile is an African crocodile which is common in Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Gabon, South Africa, Malawi, Sudan, Botswana, and Cameroon...
(C. niloticus). The crocodile inhabits the Republic of Congo, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, Gambia, Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
, Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
. Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, Central African Republic
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...
, and Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. At least one desert crocodile also exists at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park
St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park
The St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park is one of Florida's oldest continuously running attractions, having opened on May 20, 1893. Not only does it have over 20 species of crocodilians, but also a variety of other reptiles, mammals, and birds, as well as exhibits, animal performances and...
.
Behavior
HerodotusHerodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
claimed that crocodiles inhabiting the Nile (as the desert crocodile did in his day) have a symbiotic relationship
Symbiosis
Symbiosis is close and often long-term interaction between different biological species. In 1877 Bennett used the word symbiosis to describe the mutualistic relationship in lichens...
with certain birds like the Egyptian plover
Egyptian Plover
The Egyptian Plover is a wader, the only member of the genus Pluvianus. Formerly placed in the pratincole and courser family, Glareolidae, it is now regarded as the sole member of its own monotypic family Pluvianidae....
, which enter the crocodile's mouth and pick leech
Leech
Leeches are segmented worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea. Like other oligochaetes such as earthworms, leeches share a clitellum and are hermaphrodites. Nevertheless, they differ from other oligochaetes in significant ways...
es that have been feeding on the crocodile's blood, but there is no evidence of this interaction actually occurring in any crocodile species, and it is most likely mythical or allegorical fiction.
In myth
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
worshiped Sobek
Sobek
Sobek , and in Greek, Suchos was the deification of crocodiles, as crocodiles were deeply feared in the nation so dependent on the Nile River...
, a crocodile-god
Deity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
associated with fertility
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capability of producing offsprings. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
, protection, and the power of the pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
. They had an ambivalent relationship with Sobek, as they did (and do) with the desert crocodile; sometimes they hunted crocodiles and reviled Sobek, and sometimes they saw him as a protector and source of pharonic power. The desert crocodile was known to be more docile than the Nile crocodile and was chosen by the Ancient Egyptians for spiritual rite
Rite
A rite is an established, ceremonious, usually religious act. Rites in this sense fall into three major categories:* rites of passage, generally changing an individual's social status, such as marriage, baptism, or graduation....
s, including mummification. A recent DNA test found all sampled mummified crocodiles from Grottes de Thebes, Grottes de Samoun, and Haute Egypt belonged to this species.
Sobek was depicted as a crocodile, as a mummified
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
crocodile, or as a man with the head
Head
In anatomy, the head of an animal is the rostral part that usually comprises the brain, eyes, ears, nose and mouth . Some very simple animals may not have a head, but many bilaterally symmetric forms do....
of a crocodile. The center of his worship was in the Middle Kingdom
Middle Kingdom of Egypt
The Middle Kingdom of Egypt is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Fourteenth Dynasty, between 2055 BC and 1650 BC, although some writers include the Thirteenth and Fourteenth dynasties in the Second Intermediate...
city of Arsinoe
Arsinoe (Gulf of Suez)
Arsinoe or Arsinoites or Cleopatris or Cleopatra, was an ancient city at the northern extremity of the Heroopolite Gulf , in the Red Sea.-History:...
in the Faiyum Oasis (now Al Fayyum
Al Fayyum
Faiyum is a city in Middle Egypt. Located 130 km southwest of Cairo, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. The town occupies part of the ancient site of Crocodilopolis...
), known as "Crocodilopolis
Crocodilopolis
Crocodilopolis or Krokodilopolis or Ptolemais Euergetis or Arsinoe or Krialon was an ancient city in the Heptanomis, Egypt, the capital of Arsinoites nome, on the western bank of the Nile, between the river and the Lake Moeris, southwest of Memphis, in lat. 29° N...
" by the Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
s. Another major temple to Sobek is in Kom-Ombo, and other temples were scattered across the country.
Historically, the desert crocodile inhabited the Nile River in Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt is the northern-most section of Egypt. It refers to the fertile Nile Delta region, which stretches from the area between El-Aiyat and Zawyet Dahshur, south of modern-day Cairo, and the Mediterranean Sea....
along with the Nile crocodile. Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
wrote that the Ancient Egyptian priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
s were selective when picking crocodiles. Priests were aware of the difference between the two species, the desert crocodile being smaller and more docile, making it easier to catch and tame. Herodotus also indicated that some Egyptians kept crocodiles as pampered pets. In Sobek's temple in Arsinoe, a crocodile was kept in the pool of the temple, where it was fed, covered with jewelry, and worshipped. When the crocodiles died, they were embalmed, mummified, placed in sarcophagi, and then buried in a sacred tomb. Many mummified desert crocodiles and even crocodile eggs have been found in Egyptian tombs.
Spells
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
were used to appease crocodiles in Ancient Egypt, and even in modern times Nubian fishermen stuff and mount crocodiles over their doorsteps to ward against evil.
Conservation
As late as the 1920s, museums continued to obtain desert crocodiles from the Nile in SudanSudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
.