Gharial Crocodile

Characteristics
As do all large crocodilians, the gharial starts out life fairly small. Hatchlings measure approximately 37 cm (15 in) long . Young gharials can reach a length of 1 m (3.3 ft) in eighteen months. The average body weight of the species is from 159 to 250 kg (350 to 550 lb). Males commonly attain a total length of 3 to 5 m (9.8 to 16 ft), while females are smaller and reach a body length of up to 2.7 to 3.75 m (8.9 to 12.3 ft).
The three largest examples reported were a 6.5 m (21 ft) gharial killed in the Gogra River of Faizabad in August 1920; a 6.3 m (21 ft) individual shot in the Cheko River of Jalpaiguri in 1934; and a giant of 7 m (23 ft), which was shot in the Kosi River of northern Bihar in January 1924. Such exceptionally larger specimens can scale up to 977 kg (2,150 lb) in mass. While specimens of over 6 m (20 ft) were not uncommon in the past, such large individuals are not known to exist today. Gharials are exceeded in length only by the saltwater crocodile.
Gharials' well-developed laterally flattened tail and webbed rear feet provide tremendous manoeuvrability in their deepwater habitat. On land, however, an adult gharial can only push itself forward and slide on its belly. Further enhancing its swimming abilities, the body of the gharial is relatively cylindrical in shape, compared with the broader, more powerfully built body of a saltwater or nile crocodile built for capturing various prey from the edges of waterways. The Gharial's elongated, narrow snout becomes proportionally shorter and thicker as an animal ages. The bulbous growth on the tip of a male’s snout renders gharials the only extant crocodilian with visible sexually dimorphic, other than size differences (in all crocodilians males are larger than females). This growth is present in mature individuals and called ghara after the Indian word meaning “pot”. Males utilize the structure to modify and amplify “hisses” snorted through the underlying nostrils. The resultant sound can be heard for nearly a kilometre on a still day. The ghara is thought to play an important role in gharial reproduction by identifying mature males to females and as an instrument in courtship auditory communication.