Scientific name -- Crocodylus niloticus
Size -- 15'+ in length
Diet -- fish, large vertebrates such as antelope and hippos, sometimes humans

Nile crocodiles are the largest living reptile. They live in fresh or brackish water such as rivers and lakes throughout sub-Saharan Africa. They use a variety of hunting techniques, from corralling fish and stunning terrestrial prey with their tails, ambushing large animals with their jaws and then dragging them into the water to drown. They will even wedge drowning animals under trees or rocks. Crocodiles have difficulty removing bites from their prey, so they perform a "death roll" to use their body weight as leverage to tear off pieces of meat.

Like most crocodilians, Nile crocodile females are attentive mothers. They construct large nests a short distance from the water where they lay their eggs, and then guard the nest for two or three months until the young hatch. After they hatch, the mother continues to attend to the young until they are about two years old. They are solitary for most of the rest of their life; large groups of crocodiles gather together around food supplies, but are not herding or schooling in the technical sense.

Crocodiles differ from alligators by being larger and venturing into salt water. Although North America supports both alligators and crocodiles, the former are much more common while the American crocodile is endangered.

"These serpents slay men, and they eat them weeping...." -- The Travels of Sir John Mandeville