The second of Schleich's 2015 releases of a crocodilian with moveable jaw (the other being the
Alligator 14727) is a crocodile, which, although a bit generic, seems to be a vast improvement over any previous Schleich extant crocodile figure. So here is the Schleich
Wild Life Crocodile, most likely meant to represent a
Nile Crocodile, Crocodylus niloticus Laurenti, 1768. And while it's a bit too generic when it comes to the arrangement of neck osteoderms and head detail, the presence of neck osteoderms in combination with a relatively broad snout devoid of any dorsal ornamentation (there are e.g. no longitudinal ridges as in
C. porosus) would support an identification as
C. niloticus. The figure measures 186 mm in direct line but completely stretched out it would be approx. 215 mm total length. The tail is a bit short at approx. 100 mm versus 115 mm snout-vent length, so the total length with a normally proportioned tail would be a bit longer, perhaps around 230 mm. As a consequence, the scale may be somewhere between 1:15 and 1:28 for a mature individual. The human figure (man from Safari Ltd "People in Motion" toob) is approx. 1:23 - 1:27 scale. The moveable jaw works very well and fits tightly. In contrast to the Alligator 14727 the fourth tooth in the lower jaw remains visible when the mouth is closed. I was very happy to see that Schleich got this important character right on both figures because it is crucial in telling Crocodylidae (true crocodiles) and Alligatoridae (alligators and caimans) apart. The Nile Crocodile has one of the widest geographical distributions of all crocodiles and is present in nearly all Sub-Saharan African countries and Madagascar. Although its conservation status needs updating, IUCN considers the species "
Least Concern".
Together with
Schleich Wild Life 14736 Alligator:
Edit 2017-02-05: Fixed broken image urls.
