Habitat Required for Nesting by Crocodylus porosus (Reptilia : Crocodilidae)

Abstract

C. povosus in northern Australia does not use all available vegetation for making nests, but those materials that it does use are used in proportion to their availability. Discriminant function analysis was used to quantify the suitability of sites for nesting in terms of vegetation. Crocodiles do not select sites for nests only on the basis of available nesting materials; most nests are made on the north-west banks of rivers (mean direction: 293", angular deviation 61"). There are at least 933 suitable nesting sites for C. porosus on the Liverpool and Tomkinson Rivers. This suggests that the present population of adult crocodiles could increase by a factor of 18 before nest sites became limiting.