Lebby the hybrid Croc 31/10/2019

Hybrid... Of what species?

afaik she isn't a hybrid?
She is certainly part Nile, but I think she is entirely Nile if I am not mistaken?

@TeaLovingDave
Interesting. I looked it up through a number of sites and they all referred to her as just niloticus. Thanks for the correction

@TeaLovingDave Don't be surprised if there are lots more of these; the difference between Crocodylus suchus and Crocodylus niloticus is almost invisible to the naked eye. What I have heard though, from the Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians at the Barcelona Zoo Manel Aresté, is that C. suchus is quite a lot less aggressive than C. niloticus, as they had a female of the former species live with a male and female of the latter for a long time, before they passed on in the late 2000s and were replaced by the current pair of C. siamensis. He always found that croc surprisingly well-mannered for a nile croco.

@JigerofLemuria What you have heard in terms of aggression is very different to what COTW is experiencing,because the hybrid is very much top dog in the enclosure and is doing a very good job of keeping all 35 Niles she lives with in order,and some of them are bigger than she is.There is talk of her being moved to one of the off show holding pool,such is her dominance at feeding times they are starting to worry some of the Niles are not getting enough food.

@amur leopard I find it very annoying that you doubt that I could get something like this wrong,but then we aren't all such great experts in everything in the zoo world like yourself!

Although both only have a sample size of 1 so we can't really be sure whether they are indeed more aggressive or not. Perhaps by examining behaviour in the wild scientists could get a more balanced and reliable result, because captivity could also alter their behaviour - perhaps Lebby is just a particularly assertive croc or the specimen at the Barcelona zoo was less so, or both

@zoogiraffe
I just looked it up and found this:

Crocodiles of the World on Instagram: “The story of Lebby our Nile crocodile is quite unique. Lebby arrived here at COTW in June 2014 having been discovered and then rescued from…”

Which says that she is just Nile, and couldn't find anything else to contradict it. I still put considerable doubt into my post though, because I knew you were most likely right and I hadn't read something you had