Ok, I'll Bite Trivia Quiz

Answer: water monster

It's tempting to think their name came from their demeanor or ferocity, but the name mugger was adapted from the Hindi "magar" and means water monster. Mugger crocodiles are found through most of the Indian subcontinent, where they tend to gather in slow-moving bodies of water.

They prefer to prey on smaller animals. Mugger crocodiles are large and can be dangerous towards people, but attacks are relatively rare.

Answer: avoid them entirely

Unlike many crocodilians, there is absolutely no way whatsoever for people to coexist with saltwater crocodiles. They are the largest of all reptiles, very aggressive, and eat nearly anything that they can catch, including people. Unusually for crocodiles, saltwater crocodiles prefer salt water over fresh water, and as a result are distributed throughout southeast Asia into northern Australia.

They are known to travel great distances, and on rare occasion have been found as far away as Japan and Fiji.

Answer: True

Nile crocodiles are large, aggressive crocodiles found throughout a large part of Africa. While saltwater crocodiles are arguably more aggressive, Nile crocodiles come into contact with people far more often and are believed to kill hundreds of people per year.

Many of these go unreported. One particularly large, notorious Nile crocodile is called Gustave, and is believed to have killed as many as 300 people. Nile crocodiles have on occasion killed large mammals, including rhinos and giraffes.

Answer: leather

The spectacled caiman is the most common crocodilian and inhabits a large part of Central and South America. Its commonness is in part due to its ability to tolerate both salt and fresh water. Another factor is in its relatively low rate of hunting. The skin of a spectacled caiman contains osteoderms, literally bony skin deposits.

This makes most of its skin undesirable for leather production.

Answer: dig holes

American alligators dig large holes in the swamps where they live -- and notably so in the Everglades. During the dry season, alligator holes are often the only source of water around and they provide small areas of refuge for aquatic life. American alligators are thus extremely important in ecosystem engineering.

Although once hunted extensively, American alligators are now common throughout the southeastern United States. They are also raised on farms and their meat is commercially available.

Answer: snout

American alligators have very wide, u-shaped snouts. American crocodiles have narrower, v-shaped snouts. The overlap in their territory is southern Florida, in the Everglades. Because of this, the Everglades is the only place in the world where one can find alligators and crocodiles swimming side by side. American crocodiles do not tolerate cold weather at all, and can be found around the tropical parts of the Americas.

They do attack and kill people, but attacks are relatively rare.

Answer: Cuba

A number of crocodiles are very rare and inhabit small parts of a single country. The Cuban crocodile is one of them: it can only be found in the Zapata Swamp and Isle of Youth, small sections of Cuba. These particular critters are very aggressive, relatively terrestrial, and are believed to be pretty intelligent too. Breeding programs have had very limited success with Cuban crocodiles, and hybridization with American crocodiles is a possible issue with this species.

Answer: scutellation

Scutes are the bony plates that can be found on all crocodilians (as well as turtles, and birds' feet). Cuvier's dwarf caiman is the smallest of all crocodilians. It is nocturnal and found through much of tropical South America. Its scutellage is very strong, and it has scutes on both its back and underside.

This makes it relatively difficult to prepare its skin, and as a result, it is rarely hunted. They are sometimes collected as pets, but are not believed to be in any danger from overhunting or overcollecting.

Answer: smaller

Chinese alligators are considerably smaller than American alligators, clocking in at less than half their length and one-tenth their weight. Chinese alligators once ranged through much of China, but hunting and habitat destruction through the 20th century reduced their range to a small portion of eastern China.

They are very rare in the wild, but take well to captivity, and are raised with great success in captive breeding programs.

Answer: fish

Most crocodilians have wide snouts that are good for chomping down on strong prey. Gharials have much thinner snouts, which makes them more mobile and adept at catching fish, their primary prey. Gharials take their name after "ghara," a Hindi word for a type of pot.

It is a reference to the bulbous growth on the tip of a male gharial's nose. This also makes gharials the only crocodilians with any noticeable sexual dimorphism.