Body Weight
159-181 kg (350 - 400 lb), on average
Maximum: 680 kg (1,500 lb)
Body Length
Males: 4 - 4.5 m (13 - 15 ft ), up to 6 m (19.7 ft).
Females: 3.5 - 4 m (11.5 - 13 ft)
Life Span
the average wild gharial will live upwards of 70 years
Key characterization
A long and narrow snout
Rooted teeth
Male and Female
Males are often bigger then the females
males develope a round knob at the end of their snout as they grow older
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptillia
Family: Gavialidae
Order: Crocodillia
Genus: Gavialis
Species: Gavialis gangeticus
Tomistoma ( false gharial )
Only 1 Sub- Species
the closest living relative to the gharial is the crocodile
History
Gharial are recorded to have at least 140 million years of history
Recent
Oldest
Current
Habitat
Rainfall
Plants
Animals
Tempature
Gharial live in Rivers within northern india
Mostly in Northern India
abou 600 left wild
Around the indian sub continent
Fish, Frogs
few times per day
Waits for food to come to it
Water Birds
For each Gharial male their are multiple females and many young in the group
Males: defend territory "leader"
Females: birth/ raise young
Males become will slap the water, blow bubbles, and make sounds in the water
but can be agressive to males of similar size
Reproduction
Gharials will mate once a year around january to febuary and a male will mate with many females within that time
a female gharial will lay 20- 95 eggs each year
male gharial will become terratorial and will sword fight with other males for terratory and mates
when in the egg the gender is determined by temperatures
when they hatch they stay next to their mother for protection
they will reach maturity at 10 (f) and 13(m) males develope a large knob at the tip of their snout at that age
while they are young the environment can be a low 54f and at a high of 84f
the gharial being the apex predator has no predators
some do die from fighting over mates
the main source of death is from gout from 2007- 2008, 110 gharials have died from gout
Gharial will compete with each other during mating season (the bigger one wins
Gharial may compete with other reptilians for food
the introduction of the invasive telapia has given the gharial gout and killed many of them
population: around 600 individuals
on a upward trending path
gharial where mass hunted for the medical properties of the eggs, the skin, and the snout bulbs
unless changes are made, gharial may become extinct
gharial often hide from humans, but they have been contacted by humans for many hundreds of years
people have stopped them from being hunted and tried to lower pollution/ deforestation