The New Orleans Crocodile myth

I received this email earlier today but decided to do some digging.
FW: What a crock!-- New Orleans

This crocodile was found in New Orleans swimming down the street. 21 FT long, 4,500 lbs, around 80 years old minimum.

Specialists said that he was looking to eat humans because he was too old to catch animals. This crocodile was killed by the army last Sunday at 3:00 pm, currently he is in the freezer at the Azur hotel. The contents of its stomach will be analyzed this Friday at 2:30pm.
--------------------



Comments: The pictures are real, but the caption is false. These photos were not taken in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. They were taken in 2003 and document the capture of a 16-foot crocodile in Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo. The incident was covered in the July 17, 2003 edition of La Semaine Africaine. (See article linked below.)
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_croc_new_orleans.htm

I went onto snopes and, of course, there it was. :eyes:

This was the second dumb e-mail I got yesterday-the first being the gang-related-car-headlights-flashing stupidity.

generally speaking.

Not being smarty as I saw your "generally speaking".

there aren't many of them and they live only in southern Florida. None in LA.

(Speaking as an ex-Floridian married to a marine biologist.)

we think of in Africa and elsewhere, but technically those small snout nosed caymans are crocs and small numbers of Amerian Crocodiles exist in S. Florida.

Nothing like these monsters we think of in the Nile and elsewhere in Africa.

No crocs only gators.. probably many many dead ones...:(

crocodiles eating the dead bodies in New Orleans. Trust your government and put the rumors to rest.




They are alligators.

Put the rumors to rest, but DO NOT TRUST YOUR GOVERNMENT!

Well, I grew up in New Orleans, had friends that lived all around the Bayous of Southern Louisiana---
What's the difference between an Alligator and a Crocodile ?
(besides the obvious fact that Alligators are docile and don't travel in large packs--whereas crocodiles are vicious and hunt in packs).

-- I'll tell you...

it's the Jaw

****The jaw of an Alligator "drops" to take a bite-
-The mouth can actually be held closed by a human (you've heard of Alligator wrestling)

*****The jaw of a Codcodile "lifts" to take a bite-
-the muscles are extrememly strong and CANNOT be held closed by a human

on edit to add this nice comparison shot

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/UW157.
Where I am people call crocs alligators Still I have no doubt that while the croc in the email was a myth, there were many alligators in the water in NOLA.

down in the Everglades. They make it seem so easy.

Tell that to Steve Irwin. I've seen him hold a croc's mouth closed on many episodes of his tv show.

http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/crochunter/crochunter.html

I don't know where that thing was really caught, but it's fk-ing HUGH!1! :scared:

Unless you're planning a trip to Africa, you don't need to worry. ;)

If you look at the head in profile gators have teeth visibly projecting from the upper jaw. Crocs have teeth projecting from the upper and lower jaw.

Nitpick on previous posts: Caimans are members of the Alligator sub-family. Crocs don't "run in packs", they just congregate in good spots, as do gators.