This video showing a crocodile dismantling a watermelon with one bite might give you a newfound respect for those that deal with these animals, or a lot more questions as to why anyone would ever bother getting near them. The average pressure per square inch that a crocodile can generate with its jaws is around 3,700 pounds, which kind of looks like the 200 psi that a human jaw can generate look puny by comparison. It seems like human beings got jobbed when it comes to their natural weapons, as our kind has never really had claws, tails, fur, the crushing power of a strong jaw or even the strength of a young animal that lives in the wild. But we do have a lot more brainpower, or at least the potential for it.
You wouldn’t think as much if you see anyone taunting a crocodile, a beast that outweighs some of the biggest humans in the world and can still move with the kind of speed that most people just can’t match. Add to that this revelation about the strength of their jaws and you’d think that no one on earth would want to mess with them. Well you’d be right, messing with a croc that’s mellow is bad enough, but messing with one that’s not in a good mood seems like the height of stupidity. At least those you can hear off camera are smart enough to roll the watermelon towards the reptile rather than try to approach with it in their hands. Seeing how simply the crocodile manages to burst the melon in its jaws is enough to make many people believe that whatever prey it catches in that tooth-lined trap isn’t getting away easily, if at all. Crocodiles aren’t known for missing their prey all that often, usually because they have an inordinate amount of patience and because the fact is that in the water they’re one of the deadliest creatures around.
They’re manageable if one knows what they’re doing and how the croc will react to certain stimuli, as crocodiles, just like other animals, are motivated more often than not by food and the need to survive and feel secure. The world their species lives in on a regular basis is not a kind one, as predators tend to lurk everywhere in the wild and surviving to maturity is a matter of being the toughest and meanest among those that would see them as a food source. By the time a crocodile reaches maturity however their powerful frames are nothing to be messed with and it’s fair to say that the only natural predator they have at that point would be mankind. For a long time humanity has hunted crocodiles and used them for various things, some that are more macabre than others. But in its natural element, and even in captivity, the crocodile is a creature to be respected and even left alone.
If the croc’s jaws can do that to a melon, think about what it can do to a human hand or arm.
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