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When one thinks of The Sahara desert one thinks of sand. Sand, sand and more sand. Oh and heat. Heat, heat and more heat. The Sahara is so large it takes up at least part of more than a dozen African countries. It almost gives a new meaning to the term big. They say everything is bigger in Texas but whoever said that first had never seen the Sahara.
Given that the desert looks dead you might be surprised to find out about the diversity of life that exists. Many of the critters you could probably guess at but I'm guessing there is one that you likely would not guess.

This creature is known as a man-eating water loving lizard who in this circumstance could reach a size of 20 feet long. In certain parts of the Sahara you could stumble across a crocodile or two! As amazing as that seems, crocs can live in the desert, well at least some crocs.

In the areas in which they live do have water holes but given the nature deserts these water holes will dry up. So, what does a water-loving crocodilian do when the dry season shows up in the desert? It's simple, they engage in a form of hibernation. While they don't go away for months like bears, they do keep all their movement to a minimum, they don't eat but they may move up to the cool rocks at night when the temperature drops.

While normal Nile crocodiles can reach, as I said, about 20 feet long, these dry land Nile crocodiles are dwarfed and seem to only reach a length of about 5 feet long. It is thought that the reason for this dwarfism is a lack of resources such as a lack of food for most of the year. So in order to survive in the harsh environment they find themselves in they have evolved the ability to eat less food in order to survive.

There are a number of isolated populations of these crocs and extinction is always a possibility in these populations. One of the things these Nile crocodiles have going for them is that they are revered by the local inhabitants of the area. People in the area will prevent poachers from taking any crocodiles.

Local peoples tend to think of the animals in almost a mythical way. They believe if the crocodiles disappear so will all the water in the desert, and water is life. So in a sense the dwarf Nile crocodiles are life.

Even though locals swim with the crocs in the wet season there has never been a report of an attack by a crocodile on a human. Even in tough times for the crocs when food might be even less abundant than normal the crocs, it seems, have never attacked anyone.

So the next time you happen to be sitting around pondering the dryness and seemingly endless sand of a desert, remember that they can have the kind of life that just might surprise you.

Learn more about this author, R.A. Scott.
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