"Crocodilians are the most vocal of the reptiles."

September 27, 2016 8:58 AM

Alligators hiss and bellow, and crocodiles, same thing. If you can hear them, they're around...

More excellent sound resources.

If you're in Florida, lure gators to your house (or or up out of the sewer?) with these handsome wooden gator calls if you're so inclined, but be sure you know what to do once you get them (so here's a helpful PDF.) Despite being totally adorable living dinosaurs, alligators are terrible pets. But if you must keep an 8-foot, 50-year-lifespan, carnivorous predator reptile, crocodilian.com has your back. At least put up a sign.

posted by blnkfrnk (9 comments total)

Surely they are the second most vocal, after their only extant archosaur relatives.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 9:09 AM on September 27, 2016

Interesting. I had always understood that crocodiles made a loud, high-pitched sound, similar to "YAAAAAAAAA, YA-YA-YA-YA-YA."
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:15 AM on September 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

How to have a croc as friendly pet

https://youtu.be/KueavLe-j1I
posted by Postroad at 11:16 AM on September 27, 2016

Until fairly recently, my mother-in-law lived in a planned development in Florida that had waterways in it.

On Christmas day a few years ago, we looked up from the festivities to see a 5-footer wandering across the backyard.

The grandchildren were not allowed outside after that.
posted by uberchet at 11:36 AM on September 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cBvBSqQlOGc
Cue Italian children song asking what noise a crocodile makes.
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 11:39 AM on September 27, 2016

They survived not only the massive extinction which killed the dinosaurs ~65 Mya, but also the much more massive Permian–Triassic extinction ~250 My ago.

I'd love to hear the sound this one might make.
posted by jamjam at 1:35 PM on September 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

The grandchildren were not allowed outside after that.

To this very day?
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:36 PM on September 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

I once visited a croc farm in Australia. After the tour, I got to talking with the owner over a bowl of crocodile soup. I asked him if over all the years of raising these animals any of them had gotten used to his presence such that he could walk through the pens without fearing attack.

He told me in no uncertain terms that they were far too primitive a creature to make the distinction. Once they determined you weren't a member of the opposite sex, you were food.

The massive 20+ ft big daddy croc I saw on that farm remains the single most terrifying creature I've ever seen.
posted by quite unimportant at 1:48 PM on September 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Don't swim with your mouth open
Baby alligator cruising along

These are quick little videos I took here in Central Florida. There is a wildlife drive along Lake Apopka that I frequent. Always monster-size gators in the canals there, I'm hugely respectful of keeping a distance, but one time I walked down to a little pond and stood on a concrete bulkhead, about three feet above water level. I was very disappointed that there was not anything interesting to see there, I walked back up the little berm about four feet and looked back to sigh in disappointment. Right at that exact second, a huge (10ft+) alligator arose from the murky depths. Right where I had been standing two seconds earlier. I don't know who was more startled. He started thrashing and rolling and hissing, and sunk under the water, as I scrambled further up the berm. He must have continued his tantrum under water for several minutes, dozens of fish flung themselves out of the water!
posted by Jazz Hands at 2:35 PM on September 27, 2016 [1 favorite]