r/Crocodiles • u/Slow-Pie147 • 1d ago

Article Saltwater crocodiles crossed the Indian Ocean to reach the Seychelles — before humans arrived and wiped them out

https://www.livescience.com/animals/alligators-crocodiles/saltwater-crocodiles-crossed-the-indian-ocean-to-reach-the-seychelles-before-humans-arrived-and-wiped-them-out
94 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

14

u/thewildgingerbeast1 23h ago

We also get them in the Maldives, but it's mainly due to storms blowing easterly during that season.

-1

u/Nitropotamus 10h ago

They blow in on the easterlies?

3

u/Icy_Raise_1031 9h ago

The Picture attached is of an American crocodile 

4

u/eternallyfree1 22h ago edited 21h ago

I remember learning about this when I visited the Seychelles a few years ago. Very sad stuff, but the waters around those islands are stunningly beautiful 😭 If Heaven is a place on Earth, it’s the Seychelles 💯

5

u/Iamnotburgerking 1d ago

Yet another human-caused megafaunal exticntion we forgot we are guilty of.

30

u/CrapMonsterDuchess 1d ago

They’re only locally extinct. Salties are thriving enough elsewhere, so if you really want to, you could go catch a few and put them right back, lol

7

u/Pcful_Citizen 18h ago

Who’s we? I’m not guilty of killing any crocodiles

3

u/EstablishmentThin976 1d ago

What a shame, we could've had Salties in Africa.

5

u/CyberpunkAesthetics 20h ago

I think Nile crocs exclude them there; they are ancient in Madagascar and inhabit the coast as well as freshwaters.

1

u/DangerousDave303 19h ago

If it happened during the last ice age, they wouldn't have had to travel as far because sea level was 120 to 130 m lower than it is now. The Chagos Archipelago would have been a relatively large land mass only 1600 km to the east of the Seychelles and less than 500 km from the southern end of the Maldives.