THE SIAMESE CROCODILE
ANCIENT PREDATOR OF LEGEND

In this edition, we meet the ferocious Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis), an iconic creature of Southeast Asia’s waters.

Distinguished by a prominent bony ridge at the back of its head, the Siamese crocodile measures two to four meters long and weighs between 40 and 350 kg. A relic of prehistoric times, it can be found sleeping under the sun with a deceptive immobility that can turn deadly in an instant. Along with the big cats, elephants, and the Sumatra and Java rhinoceroses, the Siamese crocodile is among the species of peninsular Indochina that leaves the most lasting impression. Even when hidden, it haunts the minds of travelers in remote areas, drawing their curiosity and filling them with dread at the same time.

Before the 1950s, the crocodile was widespread throughout nearly all the deltaic regions, roaming the low forests and rivers of the south Annamitic massif, the foothills of the maritime central high plateau, south Dac Lac swamps, and Mekong tributaries. Indeed, Chinese annals referred to the Dong Son region (the Red River delta) as the “land of crocodile men.” Now partially extinct, the ancient creature can be found in the Nam Cat Tien National Park (Dong Nai, south Vietnam), the Ea So Nature Reserve (Phu Yen in south-central Vietnam), the Cardamon Mountains, the Tonle Sap, and along the Srépok River (Mondulkiri).

The existence of the Siamese crocodile consists of alternating periods of sleep and activity. During the dry season, it lives in a temporary den, remaining in a sort of vegetative state during which it absorbs only minimal food. It can live for weeks in quagmires, where its blackish body resembles a beached tree trunk from afar. Sometimes it moves lazily, making a few circumnavigations before returning to its shelter, leaving traces of a crawling beast on the ground in its wake. With the arrival of the monsoon, the crocodile emerges from its torpor and moves into hiding places, where it patiently waits for herds, isolated or lost animals, and, occasionally, humans.

The crocodile’s diet consists of fish, frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, water birds, turtles, wild boars, and, during the long journeys it sometimes undertakes to get from one watering place to another, chickens, ducks, pigs, and dogs caught near lake dwellings. It does not devour its prey immediately; rather, the crocodile drags the hapless creature inexorably into its shelter, a nearly invisible retreat dug under riverbanks. Around October, the female Siamese crocodile uses the sunny sandbanks to lay her eggs in holes that can reach up to a meter in depth. Females lay on average about 20 eggs, 6–7 cm long, that hatch after an incubation period of 20–25 days.

In the past, the middle Dong Nai (the Daa’ Dööng) Cau Maa’ hunted crocodiles in the swamps, flooded forests, and meandering streams of their territory. The hunters hung a duck at the end of a long stick, a living bait that attracted the crocodile to warriors on the lookout. Once the crocodile was near, the hunters pierced it with long spears or twisted it in a suitable net. Tanned crocodile skin was used to make shields or, in ancient times, brought to the coast as barter or tribute to Champa kingdoms.

The Cau Maa’ have various legends about crocodiles, and one of the most well-known is the Dong Nai giant crocodile, a monster that consumes dugouts and villagers without mercy. Other Proto-Indochinese cultures consider the crocodile as the executor of divine judgments, believing that it attacked only those who had committed wrongdoings. In Thailand, the folk tale Krai Thong (Kraithong) recounts the exploits of Chalawan, a crocodile lord.

The ethnic minorities of the Cardamom Mountains consider the crocodile sacred and have protected it for generations. As a result, by 2022, the Cardamoms are home to around 150 Siamese crocodiles, mainly along the Kampong Chrey River and in the Veal Veng swamp (Pursat), the Areng Valley, the lower Ta Tai, and on Steung Kiew (Koh Kong). Some of these areas are approachable via Secret Indochina modules from bases at Cardamon Tented Camp, Four River Lodge (Ta Tai), or Shinta Mani Wild. In company of Cau Maa’ trackers, there are also modules in the Nam Cat Tien National Park, around the Bau Srau pond, a last Eden of the saurian


© Illustration credit: Wilhelm Kuhnert

 

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