Ancient and unhurried
The American crocodile is greyer and narrower-snouted than the alligator, with a lower fourth tooth that shows when the mouth is closed. It ranges along Caribbean and Pacific coasts from south Florida and Mexico to northern South America, in lagoons, mangrove channels and, on Mexico's reef atolls, over clear seagrass flats in water as transparent as glass.
It feeds mostly on fish and crabs and is far less aggressive toward people than the Nile or saltwater crocodile; the shyness is part of why the species survived the skin trade.
Status
The IUCN lists the species as Vulnerable. Florida's population has grown from a few hundred animals when it was listed as endangered in 1975 to around two thousand, and in 2007 it was downgraded to threatened there, a slow success story. Elsewhere, coastal development and nest disturbance keep it at risk.