Claim: Climate Change is Endangering Crocodiles

Sarcosuchus Imperator, which lived in the much warmer Cretaceous Age, author Arthur Weasley, source Wikimedia.
Artist’s impression of the Gigantic Sarcosuchus Imperator, which lived in the much warmer Cretaceous Period. Artist Arthur Weasley, source Wikimedia.

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

A study by University of Queensland Professor Craig Franklin claims that crocodiles may be endangered by global warming.

According to the Press Release;

Professor Craig Franklin of the UQ School of Biological Sciences said saltwater crocodiles exposed to long-term elevated water temperature spent less time submerged once water temperature exceeded 31.5 degrees Celsius.

“We thought that crocodiles – like many animals – would adjust to temperature changes so life continues,” he said.

“However, we were surprised to find they had little capacity to compensate for water temperature changes and seemed to be hard-wired to operate at certain temperatures.

“We are not sure what this means, but it’s likely that if the water is too hot, crocodiles might move to cooler regions, or will seek refuge in deep, cool water pockets to defend their dive times.”

Read more: https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2015/12/hot-water-puts-crocs-risk

The abstract of the study;

Diving in a warming world: the thermal sensitivity and plasticity of diving performance in juvenile estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porous)

Essie M. Rodgers, Jonathon J. Schwartz and Craig E. Franklin*

Air-breathing, diving ectotherms are a crucial component of the biodiversity and functioning of aquatic ecosystems, but these organisms may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change on submergence times. Ectothermic dive capacity is thermally sensitive, with dive durations significantly reduced by acute increases in water temperature; it is unclear whether diving performance can acclimate/acclimatize in response to long-term exposure to elevated water temperatures. We assessed the thermal sensitivity and plasticity of ‘fright-dive’ capacity in juvenile estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus; n = 11). Crocodiles were exposed to one of three long-term thermal treatments, designed to emulate water temperatures under differing climate change scenarios (i.e. current summer, 28°C; ‘moderate’ climate warming, 31.5°C; ‘high’ climate warming, 35°C). Dive trials were conducted in a temperature-controlled tank across a range of water temperatures. Dive durations were independent of thermal acclimation treatment, indicating a lack of thermal acclimation response. Acute increases in water temperature resulted in significantly shorter dive durations, with mean submergence times effectively halving with every 3.5°C increase in water temperature (Q10 0.17, P < 0.001). Maximal dive performances, however, were found to be thermally insensitive across the temperature range of 28–35°C. These results suggest that C. porosus have a limited or non-existent capacity to thermally acclimate sustained ‘fright-dive’ performance. If the findings here are applicable to other air-breathing, diving ectotherms, the functional capacity of these organisms will probably be compromised under climate warming.

Read more: http://conphys.oxfordjournals.org/content/3/1/cov054.abstract?sid=dcc65b8f-cd23-4284-87cf-25f60de8bf95

To their credit Professor Frankly et al put some fairly strong caveats in the body of the study itself, for example;

The deleterious effects of climate change on ectotherms may, however, be counteracted by compensatory responses. Thermal stress can be buffered by both behavioural and physiological strategies. Pockets of thermally favourable habitat can be sought out or shuttled between to maintain body temperature within a preferred thermal range (Seebacher, 2005; Seebacher and Franklin, 2005). Alternatively, long-term changes in thermal regimens (e.g. seasonal shifts in temperatures) can induce physiological changes, where the thermal effects on biochemical processes are blunted (Johnston and Dunn, 1987).

Read more: http://conphys.oxfordjournals.org/content/3/1/cov054.full

I think I’ll go with the caveats on this one. Crocodiles are a survival of a much warmer world – for example, crocodiles were far more prevalent in the Cretaceous Period, which lasted from 145 to 66 million years ago, was on average 4C hotter than today, and had an average CO2 level of 1700ppm, over 4x higher than today. The largest crocodile which ever lived, twice as big as the largest modern species, enjoyed a widespread habitat during this warm period.

In addition, many species of crocodile, such as Australia’s infamous salty, can swim 100s of miles in a month – so they would have no difficulty migrating to more comfortable habitats, if their current habitat ever becomes unsuitable for any reason.

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emsnews
December 18, 2015 12:18 pm

Both polar bears and crocodiles will all die…! Oh, the mercy. So will chickadees and roosters because the sun won’t set at night. What else? Oh, children will refuse to do their homework, too.

Bubba Cow
Reply to  emsnews
December 18, 2015 12:32 pm

… to better become Social Justice Warriors …

Reply to  Bubba Cow
December 18, 2015 10:03 pm

+1

Reply to  emsnews
December 18, 2015 2:11 pm

Don’t forget it will be 1.5C warmer in central Alberta -13.6C instead of -14.1C the humanity of it all 😫

Gloateus Maximus
Reply to  lorne50
December 18, 2015 2:17 pm

It’s the equivalent of mid-June at the South Pole, with current temperature -26 degrees C. Right, so when it warms up to -24.5, we’re all going to drown! If we don’t fry first.

Reply to  lorne50
December 18, 2015 3:26 pm

GMO I work north nothing like hitting the -46C for the day with a 12kph wind PS. The day is .35h day light 😎

Victor Frank
Reply to  lorne50
December 19, 2015 6:43 pm

Is it just me, noticing the change is 0.5 deg C, not 1.5, or are the data points in error?

Victor Frank
Reply to  lorne50
December 19, 2015 6:46 pm

Previous was in response to Iorne50, in Alberta.

AP
Reply to  emsnews
December 18, 2015 3:38 pm

Next thing we’ll hear is that cockroaches will be endangered by climate change.

Mjw
Reply to  AP
December 18, 2015 4:51 pm

What, will they get trampled to death by crocodiles heading north.

JayB
Reply to  AP
December 18, 2015 7:24 pm

Nah! Cockroaches will flourish and grow to the size of St. Bernard. . .

sophocles
Reply to  AP
December 18, 2015 10:44 pm

Yeah! Bring it on! Great!

Reply to  AP
December 19, 2015 12:06 am

We wish.

george e. smith
Reply to  emsnews
December 18, 2015 8:32 pm

So crocodiles run the risk of getting trampled to death by Zebras or gnus or water buffalo. Seems fair to me.
g

ferdberple
Reply to  emsnews
December 19, 2015 6:27 am

How many crocodiles are found outside the tropics? If warm climates are bad for crocodiles and coral reefs, how come they are almost exclusively found in the tropics? And the closer you get to the equator, the more you find? Both crocodiles and coral polyps are free to travel to any part of the ocean they want. So how come they choose to move to the equator if they don’t like warmth?
The problem with living in ivory towers is that you lose all common sense. Millions of animals migrate towards the equator each year at great expense in time and energy as winter approaches and temperatures get colder. Yet we are to believe that a few degrees of warming over a hundred year will bring Armageddon.
In most places on earth, a few degrees warming is called Morning. When it takes place over a longer period of time, it is called Spring.

Latitude
Reply to  emsnews
December 19, 2015 10:37 am

Scientists discover that crocodiles are not stupid…know to move in and out of the sun
…film at 11

December 18, 2015 12:25 pm

Crocodiles are going to die out? Then why are the Florida alligators multiplying so rapidly? Are they not very similar animals? (although the “Florida Crocks” football team would sound odd)

E.M.Smith
Editor
Reply to  markstoval
December 20, 2015 2:27 am

There are salt water crocks in Florida too…
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/26/crocodile-bite-florida-swimmers-miami
documents a 9 footer attack. They call it shy and not usually a problem… but a history display per the Seminol Indians shows them fighting off a 20 foot or so monster with a giant spear manned by a half dozen guys… (coastal park display just north of cape Canaveral). It notes that the really big ones were wiped out by guns and Europeans.
I suspect “shy” was only due to intense predation and hunting and as populations grow the innate preditor in them will once again be on display. Yeah, Federally protected…
Takes a while to reach full sized, but “watch this space” for interesting “future news”…

rubberduck
December 18, 2015 12:26 pm

The crocodiles will be forced to migrate to polar regions, and on the way they’ll encounter polar bears escaping from the melting ice. The ensuing crocodile-polar bear fights will make for spectacular viewing on a David Attenbore nature doco.

Joe Civis
Reply to  rubberduck
December 18, 2015 12:35 pm

yes and don’t forget the inevitable blooming of crocodile polar bear hybrid when two of the youngsters fall in love… hmmm and the crocobear is born!! BEWARE humanity!! your evil CO2 will result in the dreaded Crocobear!!! not sure if the sarc tag is needed but to be sure /sarc!
Cheers!!
Joe

Marcus
Reply to  Joe Civis
December 18, 2015 12:48 pm

Don’t worry, ManBearPig will save us !!!!

Reply to  rubberduck
December 18, 2015 2:16 pm

Come on I watched some green say on cnn when asked about the increase in ice in the Antarctic that we should ask the polar bears how they felt 😭

Rascal
Reply to  lorne50
December 19, 2015 11:52 pm

Correction: HE (the green) should trek to the Arctic, and ask the polar bear!

Reply to  rubberduck
December 18, 2015 3:37 pm

Idea for my next novel, perhaps?
Susan Crockford, author of “Eaten” the polar bear attack thriller

Reply to  polarbearscience
December 18, 2015 5:30 pm

Last night I recorded the Disney produced circa 1958 ” Ice Worlds”, you know, the one that prompted the mass lemming suicides myth. Which is kind of fun for the game of “how enduring can a scientific myth be?” More interesting is the photographic evidence of Walrus haulouts on land and Polar bears being noted for the lengthy swims they had to make to get to the ice were the seas might be (back in 1958) and the commentary sounding as though everybody who knows anything about polar bears knows that whether or not there is nearby ice is not an obstacle to polar bears. 1958 lots of great photography of what the arctic looked like. I even bet there is a ton of archival footage on the cutting room floor. Might be an interesting way to look at animal behavior and the status of the ecosystem 3/4 of a century ago

george e. smith
Reply to  polarbearscience
December 18, 2015 8:35 pm

I want a signed copy Dr. Crockford. The very thought of asking a polar bear if I taste just like chicken, sends thrills up and down my spine.
g

DD More
Reply to  polarbearscience
December 18, 2015 10:14 pm

Doc Susan, hold the movie rights though. “Pollycrocnato”. I can see a 2 – 3 movie deal in the making.
Didn’t Willis’ sea temperature studies have an upper limit of around 31C? Something to do with heat of evaporation of free to air water resulting in cooling the rest of the water.

Reply to  polarbearscience
December 19, 2015 1:20 am

George E Smith:
Dang it, I keep telling you all that humans taste like pig. Known as Long Pig on some pacific islands.

Gloateus Maximus
Reply to  polarbearscience
December 19, 2015 5:48 am

Low latitude SST during the warmest intervals of the Cretaceous exceeded 36 degrees C.
These data are not from the hottest part of that Period:
https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/elsevier/sea-surface-temperature-record-of-a-late-cretaceous-tropical-southern-EObfKTMr2s

Gloateus Maximus
Reply to  polarbearscience
December 19, 2015 6:01 am

DD More
December 18, 2015 at 10:14 pm
SSTs were also elevated during the PETM, well above 31 degrees C.

R2Dtoo
Reply to  polarbearscience
December 19, 2015 8:35 am

Please call it a “Bearocco”.

E.M.Smith
Editor
Reply to  polarbearscience
December 20, 2015 2:07 am

George E. Smith & Oldseadog:
The newer new “White Meat”?

Joel Snider
December 18, 2015 12:36 pm

Even if this were true – which frankly is idiocy, because a warmer climate is clearly a benefit – I fail to see how this would even qualifiy as a problem.
A brief word about crocodiles, particularly salties. These are not like cougars, or bears, or even alligators. Every wildlife expert – even croc-lover (and dead as a door-nail) Steve Irwin – will tell you that the crocodile is the one big predator who, if it’s big enough and you’re available enough, will go for you every single time. I heard one expert say, “you can be around man-eating lions, and they might leave you alone, you can swim around man-eating sharks, and you might be alright. With crocodiles, it’s different. There are rivers where if you try to cross, you just won’t make it.”
And in Australia, they’ve put them in people’s backyards, almost exclusively due to conservationists who decided that the crocs needed to be protected (the salt-water crocodile is an international species, by the way, and its relatives have dominated the waterways for 200 million years – trust me when I say they will outlast us). Complete protection, by the way – no hunting season at all, left completely to the government to monitor croc population. And so the population exploded. The big boss crocs chased all the little ones (as in ‘10 foot’ little) out into the rivers and creeks… which for the last half-a-century or so, have been middle-class neighborhoods. So now, the little creek where the kids go to swim might have a crocodile in it.
A little girl was recently profiled as part of a story on the croc problem in Australia. She was ten or twelve, and she and her friends rode their bikes up to the creek – just like any kid would in a modern, well-lit neighborhood on a summer’s day. They jumped in and she was immediately pulled under. Her friends said she popped up once, and had time to cry, ‘help!’ – which means she would have had time to know what was happening to her.
The police and searchers spent the night looking for her but it wasn’t until the next morning that they discovered the shorts she was wearing. And shortly after, they found signs of what they would only refer to as ‘crocodile activity’. Well, I can tell you what they would have found. The shorts would have come off because the croc would have dismembered her, tearing her legs and arms off with its ‘death roll’. It would have eaten her limbs and probably most of her torso (it would have been one of the ten-footers remember), and what would have likely been left behind would have been her head, which, as I understand it, is the part that is usually found in areas of high croc predation on humans. So that chewed, twisted mess would have been what the cops would have found floating on the riverbank. I don’t know if they had the mother identify the body or not. A single mom – probably voted for the very environmental politicians that put the croc in her back yard. What harm could it do?
And the conservationists say, well, yeah, we knew they’d fill up the rivers. This was ALL croc territory once. Well, damn, looks like it is again thanks to you guys – and you say you KNEW that would happen, huh? And any good environmentalist would tell you that it’s an acceptable loss.
Of course, were talking about HUMAN life here, and clearly that’s a low priority to a conservationist of any kind.

Bubba Cow
Reply to  Joel Snider
December 18, 2015 1:09 pm

now I’m hungry

Reply to  Bubba Cow
December 18, 2015 2:23 pm

Not funny bubba

Rascal
Reply to  Bubba Cow
December 20, 2015 12:09 am

How is it that a critter who’s been around 200 million years and survived at least one glaciation is about to die out because a degree or two increase in water temperature?
They might die out, but more likely it just might be their time.

jorgekafkazar
Reply to  Joel Snider
December 18, 2015 1:43 pm

Crocs only kill hundreds of people every year. Greens kill thousands annually; millions, if you include banning DDT.

emsnews
Reply to  Joel Snider
December 18, 2015 1:53 pm

Um, people moved en mass to the Arizona desert where my family lived for over 140 years. They then do very stupid things like…swim in the creeks during flood season, for example. Or wander the desert without a long stick with a y shape end to keep rattlers at bay or…not look where they walk with great intensity…on and on…I spent my childhood there pulling people out of washes, giving first aid when they got bit by something, pulling people out of car crashes, etc. etc. etc.
People are very stupid when in nature unless they are raised to take nature seriously then it is easy getting along with wild critters, the weather, the rivers, whatever. We call this ‘survivalism’ and part of this is also knowing how to fight off critters or kill them even with limited stuff like rocks and sticks.

Joel Snider
Reply to  emsnews
December 18, 2015 2:27 pm

Africans are raised in close association with crocodiles and are regularly predated upon by Nile crocs, in the hundreds if not thousands every year – usually women and children. Australian aborigines have been put in a similar situation. I’m sorry, but you don’t have anything in Arizona’s fauna comparable to crocs.
By the way, in the Philippines, where they have the largest salties ever recorded, it’s twelve years in prison for killing a croc – so no defending yourself, either.

Reply to  emsnews
December 18, 2015 7:54 pm

Crocodiles have been farmed for their leather and meat for some time in the Phils.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocodile_farming_in_the_Philippines

Craig Moore
Reply to  Joel Snider
December 18, 2015 2:17 pm

Back in 2006 a University of Washington medical professor was snatched right out of his canoe and was never seen again. http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4180496.html

Reply to  Joel Snider
December 18, 2015 3:21 pm

Joel Snider wrote: “Complete protection, by the way – no hunting season at all”
When I live in Wyoming we had similar problems with apex predators and in response to folks in NY and DC we developed a coded response we called the “SSS” protocol; “Shoot”, “Shovel” and “Shut Up”. As far as I know it’s very effective and still in use today.

Joel Snider
Reply to  Bartleby
December 18, 2015 4:44 pm

That might work in Wyoming – unfortunately, they took away Australian’s guns.

Zenreverend
Reply to  Bartleby
December 18, 2015 7:21 pm

…only those that didn’t really need them. If you live on the land it’s pretty easy to get permits for conventional rifles

Reply to  Bartleby
December 18, 2015 11:50 pm

Zen, when you’re confronted with an existential threat, it’s really the last time you think about submitting an application to authority for permission to use deadly force against it. 🙂
But all kidding aside, no one should be in the position of having to ask an uninvolved, unconcerned and potentially politically hostile bureaucrat’s permission to prepare for a reasonable threat of any kind. There is a fundamental human right to defense of one’s personal property and right to continue breathing. Australia is a place I’ve never visited but I have many friends who’ve escaped. It was a prison colony after all so I can’t feel too badly about 10th generation political exiles giving up on it.

Zenreverend
Reply to  Bartleby
December 19, 2015 6:29 am

That’s why those that need them never had to give them up Bartleby!
If you’re out on the land and and are going anywhere near where these big fellas roam, you’ll have a high powered rifle with you. Loaded. In your hand.
On a different point I’m generally with you on the ability to defend oneself issue and genuinely believe that once someone commits a crime to enable another (ie. Break and enter in order to rob), they give up all rights to defence by law (ie. Being able to sue the homeowner for being shot/caught in a mantrap/cut themselves in broken glass on top of a wall they had no business trying to climb over, or even on the glass they smashed to get in/injured by ‘insert your preferred method of home defence here’). But this is all way off topic…
Back ON topic, these beasties are original dinosaurs and are an apex predator that has adapted and survived in the north of what is currently Australia since the Cretaceous. They ain’t gonna be bothered about much at all. In fact the only reason they’re protected now us because they were almost hunted to extinction for their skin/leather and meat. But they’ve bred so well since the protection was imposed that apparently it might be removed soon, with a quota system introduced.

RoHa
Reply to  Joel Snider
December 18, 2015 3:59 pm

If they migrate to cooler areas, they will come south here to Brisbane. Though i hear rumours that they are here already.
“Protected species” does seem an odd status for a beast that is as big and strong as a small truck, covered in armour plate, and equipped with jaws that can bite you in half.

george e. smith
Reply to  RoHa
December 18, 2015 8:42 pm

I don’t think crocks bite you in half. They cannot chew, so they swallow chunks whole, which they get by flinging you around and tearing you apart. Those teeth are for holding you while they slap you silly on whatever they are on.
g

Rascal
Reply to  RoHa
December 20, 2015 12:19 am

“Protected Species”
Like the Canada geese-talk to airline pilots about them!

RoHa
Reply to  Joel Snider
December 18, 2015 8:57 pm

“the crocodile is the one big predator who, if it’s big enough and you’re available enough, will go for you every single time.”
When Steve Irwin was filmed taking his baby son with him when he was feeding a croc, I recall that someone said he was teaching the croc to associate babies with food. Stupid thing to say. Crocs already know that everything is food. When a shark sees a human, it thinks “Can I eat that? I’ll have nibble and see.” A croc just thinks “Ketchup or mayonnaise?”

Patrick MJD
Reply to  RoHa
December 19, 2015 1:03 am

Exactly right! It’s an eating machine wit a brain the size of a thumb! Like a “Terminator” that’s all it does, as well as breed.

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Joel Snider
December 19, 2015 12:56 am

Strewth!

Marcus
December 18, 2015 12:41 pm

” I think I’ll go with the caveats on this one. Crocodiles are a survival of a much warmer world ”
Should that be ” SURVIVOR ” ???

Reply to  Marcus
December 18, 2015 1:21 pm

No, survival of (x) as a concrete nominalization of the abstract noun-phrase means “example of something that outlived the now-extinct context/condition/trauma/etc. (x).” It is perfectly grammatical.

Marcus
Reply to  Don Newkirk
December 18, 2015 2:31 pm

OK, thanks !!

Bruce Cobb
December 18, 2015 12:47 pm

“Climate Change” is “endangering” everything. Unless it’s something we really, really don’t like, in which case, “climate change” is their friend.

Gloateus Maximus
December 18, 2015 12:51 pm

This is laugh out loud ludicrous.
The Salty species is at least four million years old, so evolved in the balmy Pliocene, if not earlier.
It appears to descend from ancestors living along the shores of Gondwanaland in the toastiest part of the steamy Cretaceous, 98 million or more years ago. Tropical water temperature then was a lot hotter than 31.5 degrees C.
Besides which of course, as noted, they’re highly mobile, so could swim into the subtropical and temperate zones if needed. Besides which further, no way are the oceans going to gain 3.5 degrees C because of another putative one or two CO2 molecules per 10,000 dry air molecules over the next century.

gnome
Reply to  Gloateus Maximus
December 18, 2015 1:30 pm

Too right it’s laughable!
The mongrel things are much more likely to swim to warmer areas anyway, than to cooler waters if given a choice. The only reason we have more of them than New Guinea is that they know how to deal with them up there. They’ll only breed in the warmer waters of the north, but they’ll move further south whether or not it gets warmer, not by choice but because population pressure will drive them to new habitats. They’re egg-layers and breed like budgies.
We won’t see any sensible policies on crocodile reduction until they get to the Brisbane River.
(I hate crocodiles – extermination would be my preferred management philosophy!)

gnome
Reply to  gnome
December 18, 2015 1:32 pm

Did I write “I hate crocodiles”? I meant “I hate crocodiles passionately”!

Gloateus Maximus
Reply to  gnome
December 18, 2015 1:38 pm

At least budgies breed like budgies, thank God!
IMO salties would be hard to wipe out, even if governments cooperated in the project, which of course they won’t.

EricHa
Reply to  gnome
December 18, 2015 2:17 pm

Not far off 🙂
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/australia-newzealand/article4512048.ece
Salt water crocodiles, Australia’s most feared predator, are moving south towards the populous eastern seaboard.
Concerns are growing about the migration down the coast after the discovery of a large crocodile in a river less than 150 miles north of Brisbane — the most southerly sighting in the wild of a species normally confined to Australia’s far-northern tropics.

Jim Francisco
Reply to  gnome
December 18, 2015 5:25 pm

Gnome. Sounds like you are from Australia. When I lived in Townsville (most of 2005) a man from Townsville was killed by one while fishing with his wife or so she said. I thought to myself how odd, in the US usually it is the wife who doesn’t survive the fishing trips. Loved living in Townsville.

Kevin Lohse
December 18, 2015 12:52 pm

Apparently, the ancestors of modern crocodiles survived the Triassic/Jurassic extinction event some 200 million years ago. They are tough babies, and when one considers the temperature changes the species has survived since, I would suggest that a couple of degrees C will not make very much difference to their survival.

Gloateus Maximus
Reply to  Kevin Lohse
December 18, 2015 1:35 pm

Triassic ancestors of crocodilians were small, terrestrial, two-legged sprinters, some of whom were herbivorous. Other Triassic croc-line archosaurs were indeed semi-aquatic, but the first marine direct croc ancestors only emerged in the Jurassic. Others remained land-based.

Kevin Lohse
Reply to  Gloateus Maximus
December 18, 2015 1:59 pm

Thanks, but the point that crocs have been around or a very long time and have seen off the worst Mother Gaia can do remains.

Gloateus Maximus
Reply to  Gloateus Maximus
December 18, 2015 2:08 pm

Absolutely. For most of their time on earth, it has been hotter than now. A lot.

Duster
Reply to  Gloateus Maximus
December 19, 2015 1:56 am

While the late Triassic Eusuchia were probably smallish, by the Cretaceous they were running up to 12 or 13 meters according to some sources. Deinosuchus and Sarosuchus (and alligator and a croc respectively) for instance, so the beasties pretty are “prehistoric.” And besides surviving the Triassic-Jurassic extinction they survived the KT extinction as well.

jorgekafkazar
Reply to  Kevin Lohse
December 18, 2015 1:53 pm

In crocs, a few degrees can make a big difference. From Wankerpedia: Sex is determined by temperature, whereas at 30 °C (86 °F) or less most hatchlings are females and at 31 °C (88 °F), offspring are of both sexes. A temperature of 32 to 33 °C (90 to 91 °F) gives mostly males whereas above 33 °C (91 °F) in some species continues to give males but in other species resulting in females, which are sometimes called high-temperature females, AKA “hot mamas.” They won’t die out, but the proportion of aggressive males might increase.

Reply to  jorgekafkazar
December 18, 2015 4:51 pm

Mother crocodiles actively guard and monitor the nest (holes for some species, mounds for others). They are clearly pretty good at choosing nest sites and regulating nest temperatures: they are still here.

AndyJ
December 18, 2015 12:53 pm

Steamboat McGoo
December 18, 2015 1:05 pm

Is there a temperature above which Warmist IQ is endangered? I’m betting its around 32 F. I’m hoping that when this newest solar Maunder-like Minimum really kicks in, maybe they’ll wise up.

jorgekafkazar
Reply to  Steamboat McGoo
December 18, 2015 1:39 pm

Zero Kelvin.

Auto
Reply to  Steamboat McGoo
December 18, 2015 2:11 pm

Steamboat,
I thought that that brain shrinking temperature – if seeking grant monies – was something like 4.321 K for the watermelonistas.
At 288 K, the watermelon IQ is, at best, transient, downwind.
Plainly so, as explained by many above.
The saltie can cope with a lot. Cold is not its friend – but any extra warmth – no matter how putative – will not harm them.
Incidentally, I have a ‘Guinness Book of Animal records’ 2nd edition, which gives credence to the Pawlowski croc – reputedly about 8,5 metres long, shot by Krys Pawlowski, the wife of a ranger/croc expert, in about 1958-9 in the north of Australia [NT or Queensland, I think]. It was simply far too big to bring in even the head. Reportedly – a 28 ft 4 inch [8.62m]saltwater crocodile in the Norman River in Queensland in 1957…a replica of the Croc is located outside the Carpentaria Shire Offices at Normanton.
Credence is not proof.
There is a model of the beast, with photos of the model – on the net – at least one link tries to attack my computer – go careful. Norton – thanks!
Auto

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Steamboat McGoo
December 19, 2015 4:05 am

well at 40ish c here in a wooden home with no aircon and a fan only,
and water restrictions permanently as we have NO gteed water supply, only borewater
I would love to have invited the towns greentards to enjoy life with lowered expectations re power use

Alan Robertson
December 18, 2015 1:09 pm

What a croc(k).

Ralph Kramden
December 18, 2015 1:19 pm

I suppose the crocodiles died during the medieval warm period. But I’m sure the Australian government will pay for this study, your taxpayer dollars at work.

willhaas
December 18, 2015 1:26 pm

Not any longer. The Paris Climate Agreement completely abolishes all forms of climate change, extreme weather events and rising sea levels for now and for all time. Global warming is no more.

Joe Civis
Reply to  willhaas
December 18, 2015 1:39 pm

true, this makes me wonder when the “office of global weather” will be created so that we little people will know to whom to address our requests and complaints about the weather! sounds so much like that musical “Camelot” and the title song.
uhgg!
Joe

willhaas
Reply to  Joe Civis
December 18, 2015 1:51 pm

Apparently the politicians feel that they can force the sun and the oceans to provide the ideal climate and weather all over the world just by concluding a non binding agreement. They have not even defined what the ideal climate and weather actually is but what ever it is it is a done deal. I have always told people that if they do not like the current weather they should complain to the local weather scheduler and demand action to change the weather.

jorgekafkazar
Reply to  Joe Civis
December 18, 2015 2:01 pm

The “Office of Global Weather” will be two doors down from the “Ministry of Silly Walks.” I imagine there will be a lot of interaction between the two agencies.

Paul
Reply to  Joe Civis
December 19, 2015 4:29 am

“Apparently the politicians feel that they can force the sun and the oceans to provide the ideal climate and weather all over the world just by concluding a non binding agreement”
No, but a non binding agreement and homogenization works well.

emsnews
Reply to  willhaas
December 18, 2015 1:57 pm

youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h7E5rtnFH4
They want Camelot.

dp
Reply to  willhaas
December 20, 2015 11:21 am

Sea level rise? What sea level rise? http://www.uss-bennington.org/pics/phz-arizona-4.jpg
This is what the Arizona looked like in 1958 when I first saw it. Still looks like that.

December 18, 2015 1:27 pm

Since we are in Friday funnies, I tell you the bigger danger is to American alligators. They, like crocs, are temperature sex determined. Everglades egg nests incubated at 30C produce females. At 33C males. Now with the new COP21 2C goal, we are going to end up with way too many boy and way too few gal gators. Its curtains for gators, I fear.
And on an only slightly more serious but very related note, about 2 weeks ago there was a Florida burglar who tried to hide from police in the reeds on the edge of a lake near an Orlando exburb. His girlfriend, who knew he was out burglarizing, called police when he did not return by the next morning. They found what was left of him about 10 days later after a 12 foot male gator finished feeding. That gator is no more. Now you are current on all important Florida news.

ferdberple
Reply to  ristvan
December 19, 2015 6:43 am

That gator is no more.
=============
You’d have thought the city council would have found him a spot on the police force. Lots of police forces already use dogs and horses. Rather than sending a dog in to look for someone, why not send in a gator?

Peter Miller
December 18, 2015 1:31 pm

Crocodiles were around in the Cretaceous Era, before the big asteroid hit and it was a lot warmer back then.
So they can survive anything mankind can throw at it, except large bullets.

ferdberple
Reply to  Peter Miller
December 19, 2015 6:46 am

So they can survive anything mankind can throw at it
=================
what about a slimy politician? surely it would be worth a study. throw a couple to the salties and see if there are any ill effects.

E.M.Smith
Editor
Reply to  ferdberple
December 20, 2015 2:41 am

Animal Cruelty laws forbid feeding toxic subtances to crocks…..
so only do it sub rosa…

charles nelson
December 18, 2015 1:37 pm

So let me get this straight.
The bits of the planet that are presently warm enough for crocs will become too warm for crocs…but as the ‘Earth Warms’, no part of it which is presently too cold for crocs…will get warm enough for crocs?
Did I get that right?

Reply to  charles nelson
December 18, 2015 1:47 pm

Yes, I think you got the good doctor’s bull idea correct.

FJ Shepherd
Reply to  charles nelson
December 18, 2015 2:24 pm

Perhaps crocs will have to adapt to lukewarm water. The insanity of these alleged scientific papers are making me think that good, honest, respectable and intelligent scientists simply don’t bother with this nonsense, but they must exist somewhere. But where?

Glenn999
Reply to  charles nelson
December 18, 2015 6:50 pm

Yes, you got it right.
Once the additional 2C of warming takes place the oceans will begin to boil.
Really, it’s just simple maths.

December 18, 2015 1:39 pm

University of Queensland’s Professor Craig Franklin must be the epitome of the Nutty Professor. The hotter the weather, the happier and more active are the crocodiles, and alligators too. Unfortunately the non-existent Global Warming is having no bad effect on either crocodiles or sharks, or other common pests such as flies, mosquitos and cockroaches. If only it would…

ShrNfr
December 18, 2015 1:46 pm

All I have to say is that the study is a crock.

rah
December 18, 2015 1:46 pm

My own unpublished study clearing indicates that climate hacks like Professor Craig Franklin will become extinct long before crocs do.

MJD
Reply to  rah
December 18, 2015 2:02 pm

perhaps Professor Franklin could pal review that study for you.

John
December 18, 2015 1:54 pm

Doean anyone have a bucket of sand, I need somewhere to bury my head,it’s all too much. n

Reply to  John
December 19, 2015 12:22 am

I have felt the same way at times but reading some of the comments tonight those that gave a chuckle leave me with some hope!

richard
December 18, 2015 1:55 pm

use may, might, could and you can make up anything you like, the advertising industry love those words.

richard
December 18, 2015 2:00 pm

MAR 30, 2015 09:05 AM ET // BY AFP-
“A man-eating crocodile that became an attraction on the Greek island of Crete last year after its mysterious appearance in a lake has died, probably of cold, an official said Monday”
http://news.discovery.com/animals/mystery-crocodile-in-crete-killed-by-cold-snap-150330.htm

FJ Shepherd
December 18, 2015 2:04 pm

I think the climate alarmists should stick with creatures like the Koala Bears who are also allegedly endangered by climate change:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/apr/30/climate-change-threats-koalas
They are far cuter than crocodiles or even polar bears.

Auto
Reply to  FJ Shepherd
December 18, 2015 2:15 pm

Chap I know is in Australia. I’ve warned him about the drop bears – although they’re pretty rare in the cities.
Auto.

Marcus
Reply to  Auto
December 18, 2015 2:37 pm

Gummy Drop Bears ???

Reply to  Auto
December 19, 2015 12:23 am

Marcus, dang I just realized I don’t have any in the house!

Robert of Ottawa
December 18, 2015 2:06 pm

Then why are there so many Crocs around Darwin Bay, where the water is hotter?
Perhaps we could feed them Polar Bears.

Bill Illis
December 18, 2015 2:13 pm

The thing is, how do these studies keep getting published.
At some point, doesn’t it have to come to an end. 90% of the population will laugh out loud at these climate science studies, but they keep coming and coming.
The human race allows these political correct movements to continue growing and continue growing and everybody feels it is “not worth it” to speak up and end the madness in case the politically correct “police” come after them.
There has to be a way for the human race to out these crazy people or they will continue to multiply into every facet of society and destroy everything.
It has to start now with “us”.

Bubba Cow
Reply to  Bill Illis
December 18, 2015 3:06 pm

CISSEXIST HETEROPATRIARCHY – I was reading about this yesterday and realized, of course, that I had no idea whatsoever what that meant. I spent a career teaching and researching in universities’ computer, physical, and natural sciences programs and, particularly in Biology, there were some long vocalizing stumblers from Latin or German derivations.
Turns out this phenomenon, term, label (?) comes from white supremacists and is being spouted by Black Lives Matter social justice warriors. That just doesn’t ring up. And I have read a ton of freshmen and sophomore papers and never (I should say NEVER) have they had vocabulary such as this.
But – http://dailycaller.com/2015/12/17/oberlin-students-release-gargantuan-14-page-list-of-demands/
In these new days of Next Generation Science Standards or Science by PowerPoint rather than by laboratories, it strikes me that these students could well read this piece (minus our comments, of course) and just plain buy it.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/04/24/climate-youththe-next-generation-science-standards/

RACookPE1978
Editor
Reply to  Bubba Cow
December 18, 2015 3:59 pm

Bubba Cow

CISSEXIST HETEROPATRIARCHY – I was reading about this yesterday and realized, of course, that I had no idea whatsoever what that meant. I spent a career teaching and researching in universities’ computer, physical, and natural sciences programs and, particularly in Biology, there were some long vocalizing stumblers from Latin or German derivations.
Turns out this phenomenon, term, label (?) comes from white supremacists and is being spouted by Black Lives Matter social justice warriors.

Turns out this phenomenon, term, label (?) comes from white supremacists and is being spouted was INVENTED by Black Lives Matter social justice warriors (and their professors) – who are DEMANDING that Black Lives Matters “solutions” ALWAYS include “hiring” Black Lives Matters professors and graduates.

Bubba Cow
Reply to  Bubba Cow
December 18, 2015 4:58 pm

it sure seems that way, given their demands for student, faculty, library, space … resources
Glad that I am retired from academe. I would elevate micro-regressions. We don’t judge science contents by politically correct.

Jim Francisco
Reply to  Bill Illis
December 18, 2015 5:52 pm

Bill. I think the only way this will stop is when sports fields and golf courses are outlawed because some save the world group feels they are causing dangerous climate change.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Bill Illis
December 19, 2015 4:11 am

abc radio national actually had a chap on talking re Feynman and bias in data etc
they mentioned MOST fields like medicine research etc
the magic P? percentages thing
but
managed to entirely omit any mention that climastrology is THE biggest biased bull**it version of bias ever..
typical of aunty

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