Know the Animal

You cannot be genuinely croc — or gator — wise without a working understanding of the animals themselves. Not the cartoon version, and not the horror-movie version, but the real ones. North America has two. The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is the one nearly every American will actually meet. The American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) is a coastal species most people never realize lives here at all. Neither is the bloated, lazy creature it appears to be when basking: a big alligator can launch itself out of the water faster than a person can react, and over a short distance on land it can move with shocking speed. (The largest crocodilian of all, the saltwater crocodile of Asia and Australia, is bigger still — but that is a story for a later chapter.)

Built for the ambush

• Camouflage and concealment. Crocodilians’ eyes, ears and nostrils sit on top of the head, so they can float almost completely submerged with only an inch or two breaking the surface — or nothing at all. In murky or shaded water they effectively disappear. And even in the open they are easy to miss: a crocodilian lying still at the surface looks exactly like a floating log, and one resting on the bottom can pass for a rock or a sunken branch. People look straight at them and see nothing — until a pair of polarized sunglasses, or a step too close, suddenly resolves the “log” into a nine- or ten-foot animal, sometimes larger. Anywhere these animals live, assume that any log, any shadow, any still shape in or near the water could be one of them.
• Patience. Crocodilians are cold-blooded and can go long periods between meals. Waiting is not a hardship for them; it is their entire strategy. They will watch a productive spot for as long as it takes.
• The strike. The attack is explosive and close-range. An alligator or crocodile does not stalk across open ground; it erupts from the water at the edge, often where prey has come to drink or wade. Most of the danger zone is the first few feet of water and bank.
• The death roll. Once a crocodilian has a grip, it drags its prey — already overpowered — into deeper water, and its first aim is to drown it, spinning its whole body in the roll that subdues and, in time, dismembers. There is no simply wrestling free once this begins. It is why the great majority of our safety advice is about the moment before contact. We do cover what to try if the worst happens and you are seized — but once you are in the jaws there are no guarantees, only long odds and whatever chance you can make for yourself.