Historical review of American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) along the Florida Gulf Coast

Abstract

In this paper, I review historic and recent geographic distribution patterns of Crocodylus acutus in Florida, USA. I summarize reasons for the historical decline of its population in North America between 1930 and 1970. Major causes include hunting for the hide industry, pet trade, wildlife exhibitions, habitat loss, and road kills after 1938 when voluminous motor vehicle traffic was first introduced into their habitat. Individuals and groups of C. acutus became established along the coast of Southwest Florida over more than an 80-year period, but not to the habitat’s potential carrying capacity because of human interference. Recent changes in its distribution pattern suggest continual dispersal into Southwest Florida and the Florida Keys because of climate change and alteration of the population’s primary sites in South and Southeast Florida. Habitat destruction, because of dredge and fill development in the region’s coastal zone followed by an increasing human population, has limited successful dispersal and growth of the C. acutus population along the Gulf of Mexico in Southwest Florida. Recent occurrences of C. acutus in the region (excluding questionable inland sightings) extend its northernmost range to the northern end of Lake Tarpon in Pinellas County. Climate change may provide temperatures that allow C. acutus extension of its range northward along Florida’s southwest coast.