The Dangerous Seasons: Breeding, Nesting and Hatchlings

A saltwater crocodile always demands respect in its water, and the breeding and nesting season is a time to be especially on your guard, whenever the local rains bring it on. Especially then. Males hold and defend territories with lethal seriousness, driving out rivals and growing intensely aggressive; a big territorial male in this season is an animal on a hair trigger, and it may turn up well outside its usual range.

This holds the whole length of the crocodile’s range, and it is not only the saltie that turns dangerous when there are eggs in the bank. Across India, Southeast Asia and New Guinea, the nesting months are the deadly months, because a guarding mother of almost any crocodilian species will hold her ground and launch at whatever comes near. Any species. The calendar shifts with the local rains, but the rule travels: where there is a nest, there is a defender, and she does not bluff.