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A few days ago I went to Disney's Animal Kingdom (I only had 2 hours there though) The first thing I went on (after looking at the out door pondy thing where you can see under the water) was the Safari. It was really cool for the most part.

While I was on the Safari, I notices a big pile of 'gators (actually Im pretty sure they were crocs) There were at least 10, but the area they were in was rather condenced. I never really pictured them as social creatures, and figured that they wouldn't be happy in cramped quarters. Out of curiosity, am I right or wrong?

Inky

It depends, especially on the time of day. When they are sunning themselves and warming up, crocs and gators are pretty sedentary and don't care about each other too much. Morning is probably when they can most often be seen sitting in groups, because they bask a lot at that time of day. But when they're in the water and waiting for prey, that's when they tend to avoid each other, probably because of territory issues. Plus, more crocs/gators in one area means that each one is less likely to get food for itself.

I did no research whatsoever for that, so feel free to vilify me if I'm wrong. Just don't throw things.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I agree for the most part with Sirbooks... however, it also depends on if they were raised mainly in captivity or out in the wild. Most gators, or crocks, raised at Disney were brought in very very young, or even born there. They may not know how the wild gators operate. I am sure they have good instincts but it might not matter to them what other gators or crocks are around.

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"it's the neck, it creaks under the weight of too much heavy thinking."

Neither crocs nor gators are truly social creatures outside of breeding times, but they can feed co-operatively, and they will bask together. In an enclosure with limited space they will pile up for basking opportunities, and all hover about near the feeding areas, but this isnt really social behaviour. Crocs and gators have one major social behaviour, and that is really just establishing rank order, beyond that keeping them in too high a density will lead to fighting eventually, and with gators especially a common problem is jaw deformity , as they often rest chins on each others backs in the water, and that can cause teeth to protrude unnaturally.

I think its fair to say that immatures will creche sometimes, mainly as a defence against adults, but true adults enjoy a bit of personal space, it reduces the canches of conflict.

What has been said is fairly on the ball. Crocodylians (including all the croc and gator species) are generally solitary animals - in that they don't keep family groups. However, they are often found in dense populations in their main habitat. What's interesting with captive critters is that they chill out depending on what is in the environment. Tall grassy swamp land will allow more of them to go off and hang out by themselves, but in a more open area, you usually only have a couple that stray and the rest just find the nicest place to relax even if its crowded.

Not long after my brother emigrated to Australia, he had a fun experience. He'd got his first job driving trucks, and was up in the Darwin area, and when he got up the next morning after an overnight stay at one of those road inns, he found the path to his truck barred by a saltwater crocodile.

"Er, how do I get to my truck past that monster?" he asked.

The guy who ran the road inn said "No worries, that's a small one."

"SMALL!?!?!?!"

"Yup, I'd say it's about 14 feet. That's a small one."

Eventually it decided to take itself off, much to my brother's relief.

Funnily enough, he was in the same spot a couple of years down the line when Cyclone Tracy hit. He tries to avoid Darwin if he can now.

He sent me a photo of the signs they have on the beaches at the top end of Australia. Nice cartoon graphic of someone being bitten in two, with the words:

"DANGER - MAN EATING CROCODILES INHABIT THIS AREA"

in very big letters.

Apparently big Salties aren't that sociable. If they're seen basking, there's usually a fair amount of space between individuals. And a LOT of space between them and anyone sensible.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002