Luolong is a giant bay crocodile. 2011captured in a small river in Boisne. At that time/kloc-more than 0/00 people Qi Xin helped to get it ashore. With a body length of 6. 17m and a body weight of 1075kg, Luolong was recognized by Australian zoologist Britten as the largest crocodile in the world at that time. Later, Luolong became a star in the zoo and brought considerable income to local residents. On February 20 13, Luo Long died at the age of 53.
Luolong is not the largest crocodile on record. Inferred from skull specimens, some giant bay crocodiles in the past were 7 meters long and weighed about 1.5 tons. It can only be said that from the arrest of 20 1 1 to the death of 20 13, luolong is the largest living crocodile confirmed by scientists.
Crocodile king "Luolong"
The Nile crocodile, the hippopotamus's old rival, is mostly 2.5-4.2 meters and weighs 60-300 kilograms, while the Gulf crocodile is only a little bigger. Luolong is really a giant among modern crocodiles!
The average weight of adult female hippopotamus is 1.3 tons, that of male hippopotamus is 1.5 tons, and the largest individual can reach 2.6 tons. It seems that hippos are much bigger than crocodiles, and Luolong is less than the average level of adult female hippos.
Weapon contrast
The weapon of hippopotamus is its huge mouth and huge teeth, and its lower canine teeth are more than 30 centimeters long. However, these big teeth look scary and the actual killing effect is limited. Because hippopotamus, as a vegetarian, is not good at biting people with its mouth, its lower canine teeth are very long, but the gap between them is too big for hippopotamus to chew. Only when the canine teeth just stab the opponent can it cause effective killing.
Hippo's big mouth and tusks
The big teeth of hippos are mainly weapons of infighting, and male hippos often have wars for territory and spouses. A hippopotamus's mouth should be big enough for its opponent to deal with, but small enough to slip into the gap between its two big teeth. For example, a hippopotamus once put the whole head of a lioness in her mouth. As a result, nothing happened to the lion, because the head got stuck in the gap between the hippopotamus's teeth.
Hippos are very aggressive, sometimes biting zebras and wildebeests, dragging them into the water and drowning them. However, crocodiles have slippery scales. Unlike those herbivores, they are difficult targets for hippos. There are many pictures of hippos attacking crocodiles, and crocodiles are almost unscathed every time.
The hippo attacked the crocodile, and the crocodile was unscathed.
Crocodiles are the overlord of tropical freshwater ecosystem. Their food is fish and crabs in the water first, followed by land mammals crossing the river or drinking water by the river. Crocodiles have a strong bite force and are the strongest creatures on earth today. However, they also have no chewing ability. Their attack is crushing, not tearing. A crocodile can't dismember its prey.
Crocodiles kill large land animals in two main ways: one is to drag them into the water and drown them; The second is to attack them in groups. Every crocodile bites off a part of its prey and rolls, tearing off the meat, commonly known as "death rolling". These two tricks usually don't work for hippos. Hippopotamus is too big, its whole body is cylindrical and very smooth, and crocodiles can't bite it or drag it.
The biggest prey killed by crocodiles was an adult female black rhinoceros of about 900 kilograms. It was dragged by a giant crocodile (estimated to be 5.5~6 meters) while drinking water by the river, and was later dragged into deep water by crocodiles and drowned. Hippos are different from black rhinos. Hippo itself is an aquatic animal, and its adaptability to the water environment is far better than that of rhinoceros. Once a rhinoceros is dragged into deep water, it is only a dead end, while a hippopotamus can hold its breath quite well, and can stay underwater for 15 minutes, so it is difficult to drown.
Hippo meets crocodile in the water.
It is because hippos and crocodiles are hard to hurt each other that they can live in peace in the river. They usually stay out of it.
Ecological analysis
Hippos have never killed crocodiles, and neither have little crocodiles. It is a myth that a hippo bites a crocodile in half in one bite. Hippos are not sharks, and they don't have such teeth. The truth of the following incident is that a crocodile lies on a large group of hippos to bask in the sun. A hippopotamus suddenly began to bite the crocodile, but its long lower teeth blocked the crocodile's body. In a video, a large group of hippos surrounded a small crocodile for a minute, and finally the small crocodile broke free from the hippo's mouth and was not injured.
The little crocodile bravely faced the hippo and escaped.
Hippos do expel crocodiles. They all take the freshwater rivers and lakes as their territory, and they all like to lie on the shore and bask in the sun, so they sometimes compete for territory. In this case, hippos have an absolute advantage because they are much bigger than crocodiles. Crocodiles don't tangle with hippos, and usually leave on their own after feeling the hostility of hippos.
In fact, hippos can always drive away crocodiles. When it drives crocodiles away from the beach, it will first drive small crocodiles and avoid the landlord crocodile. When all the little crocodiles were driven away, the male crocodile of the landlord left by himself. It can be seen that for hippos, the landlord crocodile is a troublesome owner. How old is the landlord male crocodile? The small one is only 3.5 meters long and weighs about 180 kg.
Crocodiles and hippos are sunbathing on the beach.
Among the Nile crocodiles, there is a legendary crocodile named guslav, which is estimated to be 5.5 meters long and weighs more than 700 kilograms. Guslav can say he doesn't care about hippos at all. He confronted the adult male hippo for a while, without fear, and slowly sank into the water to leave. When it comes near the hippopotamus, the mother hippopotamus immediately nervously protects their cubs.
Crocodiles will kill hippos at the first opportunity. The female hippopotamus knows that this neighbor is up to no good and will resolutely expel it during the breeding season. Adult hippos are too big for crocodiles. However, in Uganda, a male hippo seriously injured in infighting was killed by a crocodile. Perhaps the weakness and blood of the male hippopotamus inspired the killing nature of crocodiles. So far, crocodiles have no exact record of killing healthy adult hippos. It is said that guslav once hunted an adult female hippo, but this record has not been confirmed by scientific research.
Nile crocodile kills hippopotamus.
To sum up, hippos are more powerful than crocodiles in the eyes of the public. In fact, hippos are mainly much bigger. Crocodiles have a long growth period, which takes at least 40-50 years to mature, so large individuals account for a small proportion in the population.
Actual combat simulation
If Luolong meets a hippo, the first thing that is certain is that Luolong is not afraid of hippos. On the contrary, hippos are afraid of dragons. Guslav doesn't even care about hippos, let alone the larger Luolong.
It is almost impossible for Luolong to kill adult hippos on shore or in shallow water. Because Luolong is too heavy and inflexible on land, hippopotamus should be able to avoid its attack easily.
hippopotamus
In deep water, Luolong will take the initiative to attack. Crocodiles are more adaptable to water than hippos. They are good at swimming and are more flexible in deep water. Hippos can only land on their feet and jump forward in the river with the buoyancy of water. In addition, the bite force of crocodile mouth is higher than that of hippo.
However, even Luolong can't hold the head or body of an adult male hippo in his mouth, so it's not easy to kill a hippo. Adult male hippopotamus is 37% heavier than Lolosaurus. Hippopotamus can dive for a long time, so it is difficult to drown. Therefore, the only way for Luolong to kill the male hippo may be to keep biting its leg. If he bites off the leg bone, he can kill the hippo.
Hippos are not without opportunities. If you can bite the soft abdomen of Luolong, it will cause heavy damage to Luolong, but hippos are not as flexible as crocodiles in water and it is difficult to bite.
Luolong specimens in the National Museum of the Philippines
It is difficult for Luolong to kill the male hippo himself, but biting the hippo will attract a group of crocodiles. I believe it is not difficult to kill and dismember hippos. But it is more likely that after several attempts, Luolong found that this opponent was not easy to provoke and gave up, or would not try at all. Adult male hippos are too big after all. If the target is a female hippopotamus or an underage hippopotamus, Luolong will be more likely to try and hunt successfully. A single hippopotamus is more dangerous, and a group of hippopotamus can effectively defend Luolong.