Abstract
Human-wildlife conflict is a growing problem worldwide wherever humans share landscapes with large predators, and negative encounters with eight species of the crocodilians is particularly widespread. Conservationists' responses to these adverse encounters have focused on the ecological and behavioural aspects of predators, rather than on the social, political, and cultural contexts, which have threatened their existence in the first place. Few studies have thus far tried to understand the rich, varied, contradictory, and complex relations that exist between particular humans and human societies, and particular predators and groups of predators. It is in the spirit of Brian Morris's explorations of the interactional encounters and co-produced sociabilities that exist between humans and animals in specific places and regions that this paper offers a cultural herpetology (an account of human-crocodile interrelations) of the Nile crocodile (Crocodilus niloticus and C. suchus) in Africa. It draws on extensive historical documentation of the interactions of humans and crocodiles across Africa to examine how diverse and complex human responses to Nile crocodiles have been, and continue to be, and suggests some implications for improving human-crocodile relations.
Highlights
Adverse encounters between humans and eight of the 24 currently recognised species of crocodilians are very widespread, from southern USA through Central and South America, across Africa, South Asia and Iran, Southeast Asia including Indonesia and Malaysia, and Australia and Oceania (Pooley 2016b)
Africa’s Nile crocodile (Crocodilus niloticus and C. suchus) is often portrayed as the crocodile involved in the most attacks on humans, with the highest proportion of Access this article online
The need for better ways of studying the complex relations that exist between particular humans and human societies, and particular predators and predator populations, has been recognised for some other large predators, most notably the big cats (Cavalcanti et al 2010; Dickman 2016) and wild canids (Macdonald et al 2010; Álvares et al 2011; Marvin 2012)
Summary
Adverse encounters between humans and eight of the 24 currently recognised species of crocodilians (crocodiles, alligators, and the Gharial) are very widespread, from southern USA through Central and South America, across Africa, South Asia and Iran, Southeast Asia including Indonesia and Malaysia, and Australia and Oceania (Pooley 2016b) Of these eight species, Africa’s Nile crocodile (Crocodilus niloticus and C. suchus) is often portrayed as the crocodile involved in the most attacks on humans, with the highest proportion of Access this article online. Nile crocodiles are highly social, basking in large congregations, 394 / Pooley though in breeding season, territories are guarded from other males by dominant bull crocodiles Mothers guard their nests for up to three months without eating, and assist their hatchlings from the nest to nursery areas in the nearby water, where they watch over their hatchlings for several weeks (Pooley 1982; Grigg and Kirshner 2015)
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