Bad at Goodbyes

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Cuban Crocodile

Species Information 02:05

The Cuban Crocodile is a critically endangered reptile native to southern Cuba.

The Cuban Crocodile is considered a small-to-medium-sized crocodile, with adults typically reaching lengths of about 7 feet, weighing roughly 170 pounds though the very largest cuban crocs reach 11ft in length, weighing over 450 pounds. Their body is covered in hard, raised scutes, arranged in regular rows along the back and sides. These scutes are made of bone, embedded beneath the outer skin, the epidermis, and provide flexible armored protection.

Adults are typically a dull olive-brown or gray, often blending well with their surroundings. The underside is paler, generally a creamy yellow or white.

Their limbs are strong and muscular, adapted for both terrestrial locomotion and aquatic propulsion. The forelimbs have five semi-webbed clawed digits, while the hind limbs have four, also webbed and clawed. The webbing aids in  swimming and maneuverability in water. The clawed digits help the croc navigate slippery terrain or for climbing obstacles and can be used to build burrows for nesting. And of course they are powerful weapons for defense and for capturing, holding, and tearing apart prey.

They are strong swimmers. Their streamlined bodies slice through the water and their tail is long and powerful, more tall than wide, like say an oar or a rudder, and it serves as their primary means of propulsion in the water in which they can reach speeds of 20 miles an hour. They are even able to quickly leap from the water, using their tails to launch themselves several feet in the air to snatch birds or small mammals from the riverbanks or from overhanging branches.

On land, Cuban Crocodiles are also fast and athletic. Unlike most crocodiles that have a low posture with their bellies close to the ground, Cuban Crocodiles have a semi-erect posture, a more upright stance. They are able to, what scientists call, “high walk,” lifting their belly and tail entirely off the ground, allowing for quicker motion.

Cuban Crocodiles are one of the few crocs observed galloping. Gallop is in fact a technical term to describe a kind of quadrupedal locomotion (quadrupedal means four legs).  A gallop is a gait where the hind legs provide the primary propulsive force, and includes a suspension phase, a moment in the stride where all four feet are off the ground simultaneously. Perhaps you can picture this like a horse, like a galloping horse. Um, now picture this movement in a clawed, armored reptile, who can reach speeds of 22 miles an hour on land, with a massive jaw and unbelievable teeth.

The Cuban Crocodile’s head has a short, broad, kind-of diamond-shaped snout that tapers towards the nostrils. The nostrils point upward allowing them to breathe while keeping most of their body submerged underwater. The lower jaw is hinged far back on the skull, allowing for a wide gape and its jaw muscles are incredibly strong, with a bite force of over 2000 newtons, newtons are the units we use to describe force. As an analogy, this is like the weight of a baby grand piano, but concentrated into a ten times smaller space, their roughly 3sq ft toothed mouth.

Cuban Crocodiles typically possess 68 teeth. The front teeth are conical and sharp, designed for seizing and holding prey, while the back teeth are broader, ideal for crushing bone. Their teeth grow continuously throughout their life, new teeth are constantly growing beneath the existing ones, ready to take their place when the old ones fall out. The mouth itself is lined with a tough membrane to withstand injury from struggling prey. At the back of their throat, they have a palatal valve, a flap of skin that prevents water from entering the lungs when submerged for hunting.

The Cuban Crocodile’s diet shifts and adapts throughout its life, reflecting changing energy needs, habitat, and prey availability. As small juveniles, their primary foods are insects, crustaceans, and small fish; an easily available diet to fuel their growth and development.

As they mature into adulthood, their diet expands significantly, reflecting increased size and strength and nutrition needs. Fish remain a staple. They also actively hunt turtles, employing those powerful jaws to crush the turtle’s protective shells. They also hunt on land, preying on white-tailed deer, wild pigs and feral dogs, and rodents including the hutia, a muskrat-ish mammal native to Cuba. And they hunt in the air, able to leap from the water, the crocs have been observed preying upon birds and bats.

Cuban Crocodile employ multiple hunting strategies. Ambush: quietly submerged with only their eyes and nostrils exposed, waiting and then quickly striking when prey nears. Also patrolling: actively ranging their territory in search of prey, on both land and in the water. Distraction: the Cuban Croc will wave its tail to confuse prey, before pouncing. Tool use: using sticks and branches to lure birds; researchers have observed crocodile strategically positioning sticks and branches on their snouts while basking near the water’s edge, attracting birds seeking out nesting materials.

And there is scientific documentation of Cuban Croc engaging in cooperative hunting. So, like pack hunting, multiple individuals working together in coordinated and cooperative ways to corral and capture larger prey, such as deer or wild pigs. Tool and pack hunting are extremely rare behavior among reptile species, and are indicative of the Cuban Crocodile’s intelligence, social behaviors, and communication abilities.

Scientific observation and research suggest they are social, and capable of learning, and problem-solving. While generally solitary and can be aggressively territorial, they will participate in group behaviors, during mating season, when sharing basking sites, and (as mentioned) on the hunt. They demonstrate established social hierarchies forged through displays of aggression and dominance, and a complex of visual and auditory signals.

Vocalizations include roars, bellows, and hisses, and non-verbal communication like water slaps, bubbling and body language to express status, emotions, and intentions. For instance, males bellow to attract mates, and will bubble the water near their breeding pair in a kind of playful intimacy. They’ll use hisses and roars to warn off others from their territory. Females will bellow in defense of their nest at both male and other female crocodiles, and use specific vocalizations to communicate with their offspring. Mother crocodiles have been observed using gentle water slaps to communicate with their young, guiding them or signaling them to keep close.

During mating season, Cuban Crocodile males become particularly territorial and engage in demonstrative displays like head and tail water slapping, body inflation, and tail-arching, aimed at showcasing their size and strength to attract females.

If a female is receptive, the further courtship will include nuzzling, snout to snout water bubbling, like the crocs will use their nostrils to gently blow bubble to each other, and in captivity scientists have observed male croc, giving females rides on their back in a kind of play behavior that preceded mating.

Copulation is brief and takes place underwater, with the male on top and the female almost entirely submerged. Long thought to be polygynous, meaning that a male had multiple female mates during a single breeding season, recent observations suggest the Cuban Croc may be polygamous, meaning both males and females take multiple mates.

While we’ve no evidence of true longterm breeding pairs, crocodiles do exhibit preferences for specific individuals in subsequent breeding seasons, suggesting familiarity and recognition over time.

After mating, the female constructs a nest by building small mounds of peat, often near the water’s edge. She then lays a clutch of 30-40 1-2 inch sized eggs, although nests have been observed with as many as 60 eggs. This comparatively large number of eggs is due to predation pressure on both the eggs and young hatchling crocodiles from raccoons, heron, introduced mongoose, introduced Monitor Lizards, and the predation of young by other Cuban Crocodile has also been recorded. 

The eggs incubate for around 2 months, during which the female remains close to the nest, guarding it against these threats.

Once hatched, baby crocodiles are about 11 inches long and have an “egg tooth” on their snout that helps them break out of the egg. The “egg tooth” is shed soon after hatching.

Once fully hatched, the mother gently carries her offspring to the water in her mouth. She continues to provide protection and guidance for up to a year as the young crocodile stay within their mother’s territory, growing, learning essential survival and hunting skills and becoming independent.

It takes roughly 6 years for Cuban Crocodile to reach reproductive maturity. They can live up to 75 years old in the wild.

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In the dream, we make our song submerged, in the dream, water-tongued, a sonorous rippling, a bubbling, a melody of swish and impact, an aquatic gesturing of muted lyric, of current through riversoak, inscribed over seasons, drenched notes flowing, entreating wet and curious and low. It is of course a love song, in the dream.

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The Cuban Crocodile is native to the island of Cuba, located in the northern Caribbean Sea. Their only remaining habitat is approximately 150 sq miles in the Zapata Swamp, in the southwestern part of the island roughly 60 miles south of Havana.

Zapata Swamp is a Cuban wetlands bioregion, characterized by a blend of freshwater streams and marshes, mangrove forests, peat bogs, and coastal lagoons. The Cuban Croc is a freshwater species, hunting and breeding in the rivers and swamps, rarely venturing into the brackish estuaries near the sea.

Zapata Swamp has a tropical climate with distinct wet and dry seasons. Summers are wet, hot and humid, with high temperatures reaching into the 90s. Winters are mild, with average low temperatures dipping into the mid 60s. Annual rainfall is substantial, averaging roughly 55 inches, with the majority falling during the summertime.

The Cuban Crocodile shares this swampland with Apple Snail, Sawgrass, Cuban Kite Swallowtail, Cuban Boa, Royal Palm, Bee Hummingbird, Cuban Parakeet, Mangrove, Hutia, American Crocodile, Woodpecker, Turtle, Palmetto, Water Lily, Cuban Tody, Buttonwood, Land Crab, Cuban Gar, Seagrape, Cuban Treefrog and many many more.

Historically, overhunting has played a significant role in the decline of the Cuban Crocodile population. In the early 1900s, over 90,000 crocodile were slaughtered for the exotic leather industry. And though it’s been illegal to hunt the Cuban Crocodile since 1967, illegal poaching has continued to the present day. For example, researchers found video evidence on YouTube in 2017 of boatloads of slaughtered crocodile being transported out of Zapata Swamp. And in the past decade there have been observations of Cuban Crocodile meat on the menus of local restaurants catering exotic meals to international tourists.

Historic habitat loss and fragmentation has also posed a significant threat. The expansion of human agriculture and infrastructure development has encroached upon the crocodile’s habitat, which once ranged across Cuba, on the Cayman Islands, The Bahamas, and in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Relatedly, current habitats have been affected by water pollution from agricultural run-off.

Human introduced species, like feral cats, mongoose, and monitor lizards prey on Crocodile eggs and young.

And climate change poses a long-term threat. Predicted rise in sea level, threatens the near coast freshwater habitat of the Cuban Crocodile. The introduction of saltwater into these marshlands will not only affect the crocodile itself but also the prey species on which it feeds, further imperiling its survival.

There are extensive Cuban Crocodile captive breeding programs in place in Cuba, the US, Europe and Asia. The Zapata Crocodile Farm in Cuba manages roughly 4000 Cuban Crocodiles, raising offspring for reintroduction. As mentioned earlier, the Cuban Crocodile is legally protected and most of its current habitat is protected within the Zapata Swamp National Park.

Nevertheless the Cuban Crocodile has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2008 and their population is currently in decline.

Our most recent counts estimate that less than 2400 Cuban Crocodile remain in the wild.

Citations 27:57

Crocodiles. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. Third Edition – http://www.iucncsg.org/365_docs/attachments/protarea/19_C-bc83b749.pdf 

Encyclopedia Britannica – https://www.britannica.com/animal/Cuban-crocodile 

Ethology, Ecology & Evolution Vol 27 Issue 2 – https://doi.org/10.1080/03949370.2014.915432 

IUCN – https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/5670/130856048

Herpetological Review Vol 42, Issue 2; Vol 46, Issue 2; Vol 47 Issue 2; Vol 48 issue 1 – https://ssarherps.org/herpetological-review-pdfs/

PLoS One. vol 7 issue 3 – https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0031781

Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute – https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/cuban-crocodile

Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_crocodile

Music 29:47

Pledge 35:32

I honor the lifeforce of the Cuban Crocodile. I will carry its human name in my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species.

And so, in the name of the Cuban Crocodile I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant or animal kin or their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

I pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.