If you a surfer dude and have come to sunny Costa Rica to catch the tubes, don’t be entirely surprised if you spy the occasional scaly, log-shaped thing out there with you beyond the breakers.
America Cocodrile
Nope, you’re not suffering from sunstroke, and no, it’s the Imperials you chugged down at breakfast time – it’s real! Costa Rican crocodiles love the ocean, and they even like to surf from time to time. Thankfully though, they don’t love surfers, so don’t worry, as you’re not on the menu. The Costa Rican crocodile inhabits both fresh water and salt water regions and are especially common in and around inter-tidal estuaries. You see, they love to eat fish and these locations are literally swarming with silvery, swimming snacks.
Although the American Crocodile is not considered a marine animal, they do occasionally swim very far out into the ocean in search of prey and are often seen in the surf while migrating from one estuary to the next. During the turtle hatching season, they have been known to venture out for miles in pursuit of the newly hatched baby turtles.
At an average adult length of 16 feet, the American crocodile is one of the larges reptiles on Earth. Some reports indicate that they can grow to be over 23 feet long. The few people who have been nibbled on by a Costa Rican croc were, more often that not, doing something silly like wading through a mangrove swamp in the middle of the night. However, one should be aware that crocodiles are extremely good parents, and when a mother has babies close by it is not wise to go swimming in their pond.
Cocodrile in Tarcoles
Babies hatch from their nests during the dry season, but fortunately they do not go out to the ocean – and so ocean swimming is safe all year round. If you must swim breeding crocodiles around, or else wear some chain mail.
Crocodiles lay their eggs in a pit which is dug into the earth and then topped with a pile of rotting vegetation. This little mound of composting material helps keep the nest below damp and warm – two essential conditions for a successful hatching brood.
As the babies begin to hatch from the leathery shelled eggs, they will call out to their mother who will come to dig them out. She then gently helps them out of the eggs and carriers them to the water’s edge in her huge, gaping jaws. It is this display of parental care which hoes often confused people into thinking that mother crocodiles eat their babies.
The youngsters will then stay I their calm and watery nursery under the watchful eye of both mom and dad until they are big enough to fend for themselves. Starting off by eating mosquitoes, they slowly move up the food chain until eventually, at several feet long, they are capable of grappling large mammals, big fish and turtles…but thankfully not surfers.
Ecotourism and Nature 
