“HELLO! We are very big, scary, dangerous saltwater cronkidiles… crocodoos… cronkidoos? Sorry, I am still learnding.”

“That’s okay. Tell me about yourselves.”

“Well, my name is Snappy, and my brother who I am sitting on is Chompy. As I said, we are both saltwater crocodorols… crompo-“

“Okay, don’t hurt yourself Snappy.”

“Right, we are both salties! Chompy here is a boy, but only because his part of the nest was a little bit warmer than mine. My part was 29 degrees, and his was 31, so he was a boy. But here’s the crazy bit – if his part had been another few degrees warmer, he would have turned into a girl again! Boy crocs pretty much only develop between 30-32 degrees. Either side of that, they’ll almost definitely be a girl croc.”

“Wow! That’s amazing. Do you and Chompy get along well?”

“Yes, Chompy is my best friend. I’m a bit worried about him though. Out of my 60 brothers and sisters, we’ll be lucky if just one of us makes it to be an adult. And Chompy isn’t very strong, I’ve been sitting on him for three hours and he can’t get me off!”

“But, I thought crocs were dangerous, you guys don’t seem so tough.”

“Oh, I’ll take your finger off if you put it near my mouth, but I guess you’re right, I’m not going to hurt you… yet. Just wait until you see my mum though! In fact, here she comes now…“

–

Juvenile Saltwater Crocodiles/Estuarine Crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus), Daintree River, Australia