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Copyright

This book is general safety education about the crocodilians people share their homes, backyards and shorelines with: the American alligator of the southern United States, the American and Morelet’s crocodiles of Mexico and Central America, the caimans of Central and South America, the saltwater and freshwater crocodiles of Australasia, the mugger and the gharial of southern Asia, and the Nile crocodile of Africa. It sits alongside the guidance of your local wildlife agency and emergency services. It never replaces it.

Please read this part

We wrote this book so fewer people get hurt. We cannot promise that it will keep you safe, and we do not.

Crocodilians are wild, powerful and unpredictable. People are attacked in places where nothing seemed wrong, by animals nobody had seen, in water that looked empty. Reading this book, or following every word in it, does not make you safe near these animals. Nothing does. The only thing that reliably works is staying out of their reach.

What you do with what you read here is your decision, and the risk of that decision is yours. That risk includes attack, serious injury, drowning and death.

This is not medical advice

The first-aid pages are general information written for a bystander, not a treatment protocol and not a substitute for training or professional care. In an emergency, call your local emergency number first. Follow what the dispatcher and the medical professionals treating the patient tell you, over anything written here, every time. Medical guidance changes; a book does not change with it.

This is not legal advice, and local rules win

Laws about wildlife differ everywhere, and they change. Feeding, approaching, harassing, moving, capturing, keeping or killing a crocodilian is regulated or forbidden in most places, and the penalties are real. Nothing in this book authorises you to do anything. Find out what the law is where you are, and follow the instructions of the authorities and landowners there, even where those instructions differ from this book.

Identification

We have taken care with the identification guidance, and it can still be wrong for the animal in front of you. Species overlap, individuals vary, and conditions in the field are poor. Never treat an identification from a book as confirmation that an animal is harmless. If you are not certain, treat it as dangerous and give it distance.

No warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by law, this book is provided as is. We make no warranty, express or implied, that its contents are accurate, complete, current or fit for any particular purpose, and we make no guarantee about any outcome from using it.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Vivarium Culebra LLC, Citadel Culebra, and the authors and contributors of this book are not liable for any loss, injury or damage arising from your use of it or reliance on it. Nothing in this notice excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation. Where local consumer law gives you rights that this notice cannot override, those rights stand.

Translations

This book is published in several languages. The English text is the original and is the version that governs. Translations are provided for convenience, and where a translation and the English differ, the English controls.

Tell us when we are wrong

If you find an error, especially in identification or first aid, write to incoming@citadelculebra.com. We would rather correct it than defend it.