The large reptile with a robust and hard body, counts as a lot of cunning, because despite being calm and usually walking slowly, it is just a strategy that it uses to deceive its victims, as it approaches them it does so passively. , until it has them close and accelerates its pace until it captures them. It is called an opportunist because depending on the moment and the place where it is, it prefers to eat one thing or another, so its diet is very varied.
Experts in this type of animal assure that each week, they can ingest between 5% and 25% of their body weight. They do not care about the size of their prey, small or large, sometimes becoming larger than their own size.
When they remain submerged in the water, they use the moment when any animal approaches to drink and is not aware of their presence to pounce on it and capture it, the same happens with those who try to cross the lake or the river to reach the another point where there is land and along the way they disappear, devoured by them.
In particular, it is in the water where they know how to move faster, so it is the place where they spend most of their time, although they also usually come to the surface and rest on land, for this reason the lake or river where they live is usually his favorite place for hunting. But not everything is so easy and simple for them, because when they are on land, they meet many animals that know them well and know how to measure their movements, so they manage to get out of their clutches.
Another of the ways that they have to disappear in the eyes of the rest of the animals, is by mixing with the mud and covering their entire body with it, there they can spend hours just watching and waiting for someone to cross them, in order to turn it into their food. They show no mercy, and they are very aggressive, they pounce quickly and can throw their prey into the water, drown it and then eat it without any problem.
Their diet varies according to their age, when they are small they eat smaller animals, for example from rivers such as frogs, insects or snails, even crabs. Their diet as they grow is wider and more varied; they are carnivorous by nature and eat vertebrates, so there is no lack of birds, fish, mammals, even other reptiles. They adapt very well to the environment, so if they do not have the type of food they usually eat nearby, they can opt for crustaceans and some mollusks, even if they are not part of their usual diet.
The surprising thing is that they have no regard even with their own species, as if it happens in other groups or herds of animals, since they have no problem invading the nests and eating the newborn offspring without remorse.
Fun facts:
Despite having a very strong jaw and numerous sharp teeth, they do not have the ability to chew what they capture, so their job in this regard is limited to cutting the captured animal, moving it and shaking it, until they are gone. Turning it into small pieces with the help of its teeth. If this task is too heavy for them and they do not achieve their objective, they drag them and take them into the water, because there the bodies and the meat become softer and smoother and they can tear them more easily.
A very curious fact that makes them particular as well as rare, is that they also eat stones, large stones, and they do it with all the intentions in the world, since they know that this is a good action for their body and that their digestive system you need it to stay healthy and balanced, they also serve to press or compress the previous foods you have eaten so your body can take better advantage of its nutrients.
Although they are large reptiles, they do not eat excessively or daily, in fact, they can spend up to seven days without putting anything in their mouths, although it is true that they always take advantage of the favorable situations that arise, that is, if they are lucky enough to that throughout the same day several animals come across him and he has the possibility of hunting them, they do so and eat them, this can be done once or three times a day. But normally their hunting is not usually so frequent, since they have a metabolism whose digestion is slow.
It is very striking how this reptile is capable of surviving when it is quite old without eating for almost two years, this is because they know how to store and take advantage of everything they eat, something similar happens to them at birth, since they must to wait an exact time of four months to be able to take your first bite for the first time.
Despite all this, if they have times of the year where, due to the weather, they feed much more than during others.
