Desert-Adapted Crocs Found in Africa

This permanent water hole in Algeria is similar to the ones where crocodiles have been found in Mauritania

Crocodiles rarely venture far from water. But the crocodiles in Mauritania are living in caves, burrows, and under rocks, near wetlands that dry up and disappear for months at a time.A team of German zoologists has stumbled upon a population of Nile crocodiles in an equally improbable setting: the middle of the Sahara desert. Peeping through the crevices, the researchers spotted some puddles and a 20-meter-wide pond some 5 meters below the surface of the plateau.

The Mauritanian crocodiles have survived thousands of years totally isolated from other crocodile populations. Only 10,000 years ago most of the Sahara was fertile savanna. When the desert expanded, it cut off some groups in refuges like the underground water system that the team found. Nile crocs have been found in  other unexpected locations, a mountain range in Chad. It has also been found that several small communities of crocodiles are living on the southern edge of Africa's Sahara in desert. Ennedi plateau of Chad also hold a number of desert crocodile. The Guelta d'Archei Ennide Plateau of Chad is inhabited by several kinds of animals, most notably the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus Laurenti).

Desert croc holding in Mauritania

Desert croc holding in Mauritania

Picture Source: Collected from Internet