# Reason for crocodiles **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 11, 2002, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356 "2002-08-11T03:11:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/1 "2002-08-11T03:11:17Z")
My mom and I were watching TV today and she told me to turn off the Crocodile Hunter because she doesn’t like it. Ok, big deal. Then she asked “where do crocs fit on the food chain? What is their purpose?” So what IS the purpose of crocodiles - and aligators, too. Is it just to keep the mamal/fish population down? Do they do anything special to the ecology of the place in which they live? I guess we could ask this question about a lot of animals (mosquitoes, starlings, earwigs, etc) but I guess since my mom asked about this specific animal, I might as well ask y’all 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![PosterChild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e274bd/32.png) [@PosterChild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PosterChild)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/2 "2002-08-11T03:19:47Z")
What d’ya mean “So what IS the purpose of crocodiles.” If you’re a fundie they’re here for us to use or do whatever we like. Otherwise, you seemed to come close with the part that we could just as easily ask what any animal (including humans) are for. If you like an answer like they keep populations x, y and z down, then what is the purpose of **x** , **y** , and **z** except maybe to give crocs something to eat? Any purpose you give is just a construct of values you impose. They just are. You could just as easily ask what purpose the moon serves. PC ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/3 "2002-08-11T04:45:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ZipperJJ \* > \*\*My mom and I were watching TV today and she told me to turn off the Crocodile Hunter because she doesn’t like it. Ok, big deal. Then she asked “where do crocs fit on the food chain? What is their purpose?” > > So what IS the purpose of crocodiles - and aligators, too. Is it just to keep the mamal/fish population down? Do they do anything special to the ecology of the place in which they live? > > I guess we could ask this question about a lot of animals (mosquitoes, starlings, earwigs, etc) but I guess since my mom asked about this specific animal, I might as well ask y’all 🙂 \*\* Let’s take the mosquito. God created the “creepy crawlies,” including mosquitos. He created them so that they lived on blood. So he had to create blood and He needed something to keep the blood fresh for the mosquitos. So He created humans (and of course other creatures with blood) to keep the mosquitos’ food from spoiling until they were ready to use it. Ain’t Intelligent Design wonderful? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/4 "2002-08-11T04:56:33Z")
Ecosystems tend to be divided up into “predator” and “prey”. Crocodiles are predators. So they perform the same function as lions out on the Serengeti Plains–they weed out the diseased, the elderly, the generally unfit, only they do it in a swamp instead of on the Serengeti. Their “weeding-out” duties would include turtles, fish, waterbirds, animals that come down to drink, the occasional annoying Australian TV host… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![imthjckaz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/imthjckaz/32/3223_2.png) [@imthjckaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imthjckaz)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/5 "2002-08-11T05:28:44Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by PosterChild \* > **What d’ya mean “So what IS the purpose of crocodiles.” If you’re a fundie they’re here for us to use or do whatever we like. Otherwise, you seemed to come close with the part that we could just as easily ask what any animal (including humans) are for. If you like an answer like they keep populations x, y and z down, then what is the purpose of x, y, and**z_\* except maybe to give crocs something to eat? > > Any purpose you give is just a construct of values you impose. They just are. You could just as easily ask what purpose the moon serves. > > PC \*\* Ok, that made my head hurt. ---
**Author:** ![Feynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@Feynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feynn)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/6 "2002-08-11T05:56:29Z")
Crocodilians fill a critical, functional niche in the aquatic systems they occupy. They are top predators in these systems, thereby influencing several trophic levels below them as they go through a 3-5 order of magnitude increase in body size. Crocodilians are implicated in positive effects on their environments as keystone species that maintain ecosystem structure and function by their activities. These activities include selective predation on fish and aquatic invertebrates, the recycling of nutrients and the maintenance of wet refugia during periods of drought (Thorbjarnarson, 1992) Does this help at all? ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/7 "2002-08-11T06:20:28Z")
What kind of mom makes you turn off a show as educational as the Croc Hunter? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/8 "2002-08-11T06:31:18Z")
The purpose of crocodiles is to continue propagating the genes to make more crocodiles. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/9 "2002-08-11T06:41:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \* > \*\*Ecosystems tend to be divided up into “predator” and “prey”. Crocodiles are predators. > > So they perform the same function as lions out on the Serengeti Plains–they weed out the diseased, the elderly, the generally unfit, only they do it in a swamp instead of on the Serengeti. > > Their “weeding-out” duties would include turtles, fish, waterbirds, animals that come down to drink, the occasional annoying Australian TV host… > > 😃 \*\* I know this is a standard reply, but it bothers me some. For example, the “unfit” are unfit in an environment that includes predators. If there were no predators there would still be “unfit” creatures but it would be different kind of unfitness. There isn’t any real purpose in weeding out the diseased, the elderly and the generally unfit. Disease will take care of the diseased, old age will eliminate the elderly and bacteria will dispose of the remains. The unfit will probably not get much of a chance to pass on their genes because of breeding competition. The idea of “keeping the herd fitter” seems to me to be a human value about which nature doesn’t really give a damn. If an individual deer survives long enough to reproduce and is able to do that, it makes no difference whether or not it is as “fit” as it could have been had it been chased around by a predator now and then. The crocodile is here, just like everything else, because there was an unfilled environmental niche at some point in time and the antecedents of crocodiles filled it. If not the croc then something else would have done it. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/10 "2002-08-11T07:05:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by David Simmons \* > **There isn’t any real purpose in weeding out the diseased, the elderly and the generally unfit. Disease will take care of the diseased, old age will eliminate the elderly and bacteria will dispose of the remains. The unfit will probably not get much of a chance to pass on their genes because of breeding competition.** Agreed. Crocodiles, in their ecological role as predators, simply act as but one part of the overall “environment” which other animals in the area have to contend (just as all other organisms are, regardless of their ecological role). If anything, like any other animal, they are but ecological placeholders: if not crocodiles, some other animal would likely occupy that niche. That that niche exists at all is simply because it is a viable means of allowing whatever animal that occupies it to further its own species; it is not there to maintain or regulate the fitness of other species. ---
**Author:** ![Monkeypants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Monkeypants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monkeypants)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/11 "2002-08-11T14:00:35Z")
The purpose of crocodiles is to weed out the unfit and in doing so provide us with news stories like this one: [http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/08/11/thailand.crocodile.reut/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/08/11/thailand.crocodile.reut/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/12 "2002-08-11T17:22:54Z")
Crocodiles are here because at some point in the past, a different animal slowly turned into what we now know as the crocodile. Both these animals - the crocodile’s ancestors and the crocodile itself - were able to survive in the wild, thus they did survive. The ‘purpose’ of them today is to continue to survive and, as pointed out by **MEBuckner** , to continue propagate the species. This sounds like quite a pompous answer so far. 🙂 However, Lady Evolution doesn’t create animals with a specific purpose in mind: if the animal can survive, it does so. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/13 "2002-08-11T19:21:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Great Philosopher \* > \*\*if the animal can survive, it does so. \*\* His mother did not ask, why do crocs exist. She asked: > [@](#): > > “where do crocs fit on the food chain? What is their purpose?” The answer to the first part is that they are predators. The second part is a little more complicated, if you consider the case of the alligator. > [@](#): > > The alligator is a keystone species and an ecosystem engineer that physically influences the floral and faunal characteristics of the Everglades landscape[**.**](http://sofia.usgs.gov/geer/posters/canal_gator/) As to the croc: > [@](#): > > It is important to realize that the Nile crocodile is vital to the riverine ecosystem. They have 66 sharp teeth that make them a top predator in the food chain, help them to scavenge, and to eat barbel catfish. If crocodiles were to vanish from the ecosystem, the barbel catfish population could multiply enough to upset the balance of the ecosystem. The catfish have voracious appetites and could wipe out other fish species that are food sources for over 40 different types of birds . So although that isn’t the reason they exist, we should be glad that they are there to serve that _purpose_. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/14 "2002-08-11T19:28:55Z")
Thanks all, you have answered my question (in a few different ways). I suppose you will continue to argue amongst yourself until you find out the “right” answer 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/15 "2002-08-12T00:11:16Z")
Monkeypants, I have to say I think your comment is in rather bad taste. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/16 "2002-08-12T00:38:19Z")
Crocs exist to provide Steve Irwin with gainful employment. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/17 "2002-08-12T02:09:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \* > \*\*Their “weeding-out” duties would include …the occasional annoying Australian TV host…😃 \*\* A duty in which crocodiles are seriously failing. Is there any way to impose some sort of sanction on them until they pick up their act in this respect? No plump juicy 'Merkin tourists for dinner (only eel) until they’ve weeded out at least one host, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/18 "2002-08-12T02:12:55Z")
And aren’t we glad! How’d you like to have him as your waiter or something? “G’Day! I’m Steeeeve Irwin and I’ll be your waitah t’day. WOOO! Look at that steak! Ain’t she a BEAUTY!” ---
**Author:** ![Monkeypants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Monkeypants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monkeypants)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/19 "2002-08-13T03:11:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \* > \*\*Monkeypants, I have to say I think your comment is in rather bad taste. ☹ \*\* Oh, come on. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Rockford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac8455/32.png) [@Rockford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rockford)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reason-for-crocodiles/123356/20 "2002-08-13T05:19:07Z")
Monkeypants– \*\* > [@](#): > > The purpose of crocodiles is to weed out the unfit and in doing so provide us with news stories like this one: > [http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiap...reut/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiap...reut/index.html) \*\* Hmm, if I didn’t know better I might think you were trying to provoke people. :rolleyes: