Re: Crocs regrowing their tails

[Gautam Majumdar <gautam@majumdar.demon.co.uk>]

Chris Lavers <chris.lavers@nottingham.ac.uk> wrote

>'Grilled crocodile tail is an extremely popular dish and not too damaging
>as the crocodile, once back in water, quickly grows a new tail.'
>
Several years ago I saw a crocodile in an Indian zoo (C.porosus - Indo-Pacific
crocodile which is also found in Vietnam and probably the only wild species
present in that country now) with only a quarter of its tail. On my enquiry the
keeper told me that it was found several years earlier on a river bank with its
tail badly mangled, probably by the propeller of a motor boat. Its tail was
amputated by the vet of the zoo. The zoo keepers knew that it wont survive in
the wild as it would not be able to swim properly or hunt and kept it in the 
zoo.
Its tail did not grow back at all.

The author might have referred to Water Monitor (V.salvator) which in many
south-east Asian countries is often called the Land Crocodile. But I am not
sure whether monitor lizards can regrow their tail either. However, monitor
lizards are regularly eaten in most part of south-east Asia.

Gautam Majumdar                 gautam@majumdar.demon.co.uk