Desert crocodile

West African Crocodile
Skull of a mummified specimen of C. suchus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Archosauromorpha
Clade:	Archosauriformes
Order:	Crocodilia
Family:	Crocodylidae
Genus:	Crocodylus
Species:	C. suchus
Binomial name
Crocodylus suchus Geoffroy, 1807
Synonyms
C. niloticus suchus

The West African crocodile (Crocodylus suchus) is a species of crocodile distantly related to (but often confused with) the Nile crocodile (C. niloticus). The crocodile inhabits the Republic of Congo, Uganda, Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad. Benin, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, and Nigeria. At least one West African crocodile also exists at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park.

Taxonomy

Mummified crocodile

The species was named by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1807, who discovered differences between the skulls of a mummified crocodile and those of C. niloticus. This new species was however long afterwards regarded as a synonym of the nile crocodile, but a 2011 study showed that all sampled mummified crocodiles from Egypt belonged to a different species than C. niloticus, and thereby resurrected the name C. suchus.

Behavior

Herodotus claimed that crocodiles inhabiting the Nile (as this crocodile did in his day) have a symbiotic relationship with certain birds like the Egyptian plover, which enter the crocodile's mouth and pick leeches that have been feeding on the crocodile's blood, but there is no evidence of this interaction actually occurring in any crocodile species, and it is most likely mythical or allegorical fiction.

In myth

Sobek

The people of Ancient Egypt worshiped Sobek, a crocodile-god associated with fertility, protection, and the power of the pharaoh. They had an ambivalent relationship with Sobek, as they did (and do) with the West African crocodile; sometimes they hunted crocodiles and reviled Sobek, and sometimes they saw him as a protector and source of pharonic power. The West African crocodile was known to be more docile than the Nile crocodile and was chosen by the Ancient Egyptians for spiritual rites, including mummification. A recent DNA test found all sampled mummified crocodiles from Grottes de Thebes, Grottes de Samoun, and Haute Egypt belonged to this species.

Sobek was depicted as a crocodile, as a mummified crocodile, or as a man with the head of a crocodile. The center of his worship was in the Middle Kingdom city of Arsinoe in the Faiyum Oasis (now Al Fayyum), known as "Crocodilopolis" by the Greeks. Another major temple to Sobek is in Kom-Ombo, and other temples were scattered across the country.

Historically, the West African crocodile inhabited the Nile River in Lower Egypt along with the Nile crocodile. Herodotus wrote that the Ancient Egyptian priests were selective when picking crocodiles. Priests were aware of the difference between the two species, the West African crocodile being smaller and more docile, making it easier to catch and tame. Herodotus also indicated that some Egyptians kept crocodiles as pampered pets. In Sobek's temple in Arsinoe, a crocodile was kept in the pool of the temple, where it was fed, covered with jewelry, and worshipped. When the crocodiles died, they were embalmed, mummified, placed in sarcophagi, and then buried in a sacred tomb. Many mummified West African crocodiles and even crocodile eggs have been found in Egyptian tombs.

Spells were used to appease crocodiles in Ancient Egypt, and even in modern times Nubian fishermen stuff and mount crocodiles over their doorsteps to ward against evil.

Conservation

As late as the 1920s, museums continued to obtain West African crocodiles from the Nile in Sudan.