(Learn how American crocodiles can have “virgin births.”)

They’re doing so well, in fact, that the animals are setting off for new territories. Instead, their data indicates that the reptiles are flourishing in habitats outside the Everglades region, such as protected areas around Biscayne Bay south of Miami and Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge on Key Largo. Many Floridian coastal estuaries have lost as much as 60 percent of their mangrove forest cover in the past century.įor instance, Everglades National Park and Florida Bay, to the park’s south, still experience disrupted flows, which is why crocodiles are scarce there, according to data collected by CrocDocs, a multidisciplinary team at the University of Florida. Though once the dominant coastal habitat in southern Florida, many mangrove forests have been destroyed by construction and hurricane activity supercharged by climate change. While alligators have made themselves at home in just about any water body in Florida, including swimming pools, crocodiles are not as flexible, and need mangrove forests to thrive. These habitat changes have posed a bigger problem for crocodiles than for their hardier relatives. Roads and dikes staunched and diverted the Everglades’ natural southward flow, rendering many downstream habitats inhospitable. Just like American alligators, American crocodile populations in Florida took a downturn largely due to habitat destruction.

“Due to the American crocodile’s shy and reclusive nature, conflicts between them and people are extremely rare in Florida, with only one bite incident ever having been documented,” says Lauren Claerbout, a spokesperson for the state wildlife commission. The species’ return is positive, especially because the apex predators are vital to the coastal wetlands, helping keep prey animals in check, he says. “It’s an endangered species success story,” says Frank Mazzotti, an ecology professor and American crocodile expert at the University of Florida. (Read: Can restoring mangroves protect Miami from rising seas?) While the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the American crocodile as vulnerable overall, the FWS downlisted the species- in Florida only-to threatened in 2007. Thanks to mangrove forest conservation, their numbers have risen dramatically from an estimated all-time low of around 150 to around 2,000 individuals in the state of Florida. Like their smaller alligator cousins, the American crocodile was declared endangered in the 1970s by the U.S.

The best way to tell the species apart is by the shape of their snouts: Alligators have a rounder appearance, while crocodiles’ noses narrow to a point. American crocodiles reach about 15 feet in length, while the average American alligator seldom exceeds 10 feet. Though no one knows how many crocodiles live in northern Florida, the increase in sightings suggest the animals will begin breeding soon, experts say.įlorida is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles coexist in the wild. Although the historic range of American crocodiles reaches up Florida’s coasts as far as the Canaveral National Seashore, northeast of Orlando, massive habitat loss had virtually eliminated the species from the north.īut over the past few years, verified sightings of American crocodiles north of the Everglades have climbed, and experts believe the reptiles may be reclaiming at least some of their homeland. American crocodiles typically live in the mangrove estuaries in and around the Everglades-a good 200 miles from Banana River.

Orlando to canaveral national seashore