false gharial

false gharial, (Tomistoma schlegelii), large species of freshwater crocodile that inhabits swamps, rivers, and other waterways on the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo and in Peninsular Malaysia and is easily recognized by its long snout. The false gharial is one of only two living species classified in the family Gavialidae (order Crocodilia), the other being the gavial (or gharial, Gavialis gangeticus), a similar long-snouted crocodile that the false gharial is sometimes mistaken for.

Natural history

Adults can grow quite large, with males measuring as long as 4.9–5.5 meters (16–18 feet). Most females, however, are slightly smaller, stretching roughly 3–3.4 meters (10–11 feet) long. Fully grown adults of both sexes weigh between 93 and 210 kg (205–463 pounds). The species has evolved for life in the water, like most crocodilians, its eyes and nostrils being on the top of the head. The scales on the top and sides of the body are shaded brown, with black patches or bands, especially on the tail. The reptile’s underside is lighter colored, ranging from beige to white.

False gharials are ambush predators. They tend to remain motionless at or just beneath the surface of the water until prey ventures close enough to be snapped up in their jaws and drowned. Although their diet is mostly made up of fishes, they also consume amphibians, other reptiles, crustaceans, and mammals as large as pigs and deer that wander too close to the water’s edge. False gharials have even captured primates, such as crab-eating macaques (Macaca fascicularis), but attacks on people are extremely rare. Because false gharials are among the largest reptiles in Malaysia and eastern Indonesia, they have few natural enemies. However, snakes, monitor lizards, and wild pigs eat their eggs, and people collect false gharial eggs for food and for use in folk medicine.

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Courtship and mating occur during the rainy months from November to March. Females build a nest made up of a mound of sand and vegetation on riverbanks near the waterline. Roughly one month after mating, a female deposits between 20 and 60 large eggs in the nest. After an incubation period lasting 90–100 days, the young hatch and emerge from the nest, but they are given no parental care. Upon growing to about 2.5–3 meters (8.2–9.8 feet) long, which usually takes until age 20 in both sexes, false gharials become sexually mature. The species may live for about 25 years in captivity, but it may live as long as 80 years in the wild.

The false gharial and the gavial (Gavialis gangeticus), which is also known as the gharial (which lives in Nepal, northern India, and Bangladesh), are often compared to one another because of superficial similarities. However, they have pronounced differences with respect to the shape of the snout, the number of teeth, and their geographic ranges. The common name for both species derives from the Hindi word ghara, which means “mud pot.” A bulbous protuberance on the end of the snout of an adult male gavial is reminiscent of a ghara. However, the false gharial does not possess this structure. In addition, the false gharial’s snout contains between 76 and 84 interlocking teeth, whereas the gavial’s snout, which is narrower, contains 110 interlocking teeth. The snout of the false gharial is thicker than that of the gavial and tapers more gradually from its connection with the animal’s head.

Conservation status

The false gharial has been classified as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). The organization reports that the species is likely made up of fewer than 2,400 adults in the wild and that numbers in each of the species’ populations have been decreasing, although several hundred individuals live in captivity in zoos worldwide and on game farms in Southeast Asia. The primary threat to the false gharial’s survival is habitat loss from logging and agriculture (specifically the expansion of oil palm cultivation) and the drainage and channeling of waterways. Ecologists note that false gharials in Sumatra sometimes drown after becoming entangled in fishing nets; however, anglers in Sarawak and East Kalimantan often free ensnared false gharials to guard against the arrival of bad luck and illness, in accordance with local beliefs.