Re: [Re: Crocs regrowing their tails]

[archosaur@usa.net]

Gautam Majumdar <gautam@majumdar.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> 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

----------------------------------------------------

A nice thought, but monitors don't purposefully lose or regrow their tails
either. 

I'm guessing that with their superficially lizardlike appearance and going by
the general knowledge of most people on reptiles, they probably assumed that
its tail would grow back just like any other lizard.

Archosaur J


Jurassosaurus's Reptipage: A page devoted to the study of the reptilia:

http://reptilis.webjump.com

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