Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone know who has big niles on exhibit? I have been getting asked how our 13.5ft male ranks among niles in the US & I would venture to say among the largest but not sure...

Thanks
-Ruston
Dallas Zoo

Busch Gardens in Tampa has a very large male (15 - 16 ft, I guess).I saw another giant female years ago at Bruce Shwedick´s place in Florida.

I dont know what all Bush Gardens has now as far as Niles but from what I heard, no really large Niles ..... about 15 years or so ago they had a few really large Niles there on display, I recall because I received a few offspring produced by these giants, they were my very first Niles and I had hopes that they would also grow to such a amazing size, I think I traded them off to some one a couple years later for some thing tho, I forget now

Busch Gardens has a large male on display now.

Ruston from my travels around viewing crocs while researching the next book I can say your animal is one of the larger Niles on display in the USA. Which has always struck me a little funny as a 13.5 Nile is very large but by no means abnormal. It sits pretty much within the 'average' range for these animals if on the upper side of average.

I suspect it's because so many acquire their Niles from South Africa. This region is thought to perhaps have animals that reach a slightly smaller adult size. This hasn't been born out through study yet, at least not one to my knowledge.

But you'd be amazed at what some private fellas have out here.

website

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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'

Bush gardens is again displaying there animals?? or still all in the back for "private" viewing, I know they do have some nice animals still ... tomistoma, gharial, etc..

Bush gardens had one of the nicest collection / displays I had ever seen ... back in the day!

Yes, it might surprise some people must what is out there in private collections, I viewed a couple private facilities in Florida a few months ago, wow ... some nice collections, and I did see a monster or two, a 16ft Salty seems to stand out in my mind

Some niles are on display, also the big male Chris and I told about.But you are right: There are some crocs off exhibit, as the giant Tomistoma...

Chris,

I recently was at the Philly Zoo and their keepers told me the same thing about their S.A. Nile crocs. THeirs are ~35 years old and 8-9'. Their keepers told me that the S.A. niles don't get as large as well, but I've not had a chance to follow up on this.

I've really not seen any 'large' Niles on display...the largest crocs I've seen on display have been either acutus (Cincy Zoo has a large male that used to belong to Marlin Perkins), or the Salty-hybrid at Parrot Jungle in Miami---THAT is one BIG BEAST!

MH
Feeding Acutus at Philly Zoo.

Serpent safari had a fairly large nile on display; I don't know exactly how big, but perhaps not quite 13.5 feet.

I didn't realize the range extended all across Africa. How can a 13 foot croc bring down a huge water buffalo? I was under the impression they were say, 18-19 feet long.

Ian

I know that both the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Gatorland have some nice sized niles. Personally biggest I've dealt with was approx. 9ft
Michigan Croc Rescue

I think I remember who you are, didnt you used to post here a lot by the user ID ... JoePo or something similar, and your a cop right ???

I think it stands out in my mind because I am also in Michigan

Yep that's me but im on here so rarely that I forgot my password and for some reason can't get it from kingsnake so I had to make up a new one