Crocodile vs Gharial: Snouts, Size and Key Differences

Key differences at a glance

Crocodiles and gharials both belong to the order Crocodilia, along with alligators and caimans, but they are placed in separate families. True crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) live in tropical regions around the world. The gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is the only living species in its genus and survives only in a few rivers in India and Nepal.

In South Asia, the comparison usually involves two crocodiles: the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), the largest living reptile, and the mugger or marsh crocodile (Crocodylus palustris), a broad-snouted freshwater species. The table above summarizes the differences, and the sections below explain them.

Snout and teeth

The snout is the clearest difference. A gharial’s snout is about three and a half times longer than the width of the base of its skull, narrow along its whole length and widened into a bulb at the tip. Adult males also carry a pot-shaped knob called a ghara on the end of the snout, something no crocodile has.

A crocodile’s snout is much broader and heavier. The mugger has one of the broadest snouts of any living crocodile, and the saltwater crocodile’s snout, while longer, is still wide and deep. Crocodiles have about 64 to 68 stout, cone-shaped teeth, built to grip and hold struggling animals. Gharials have roughly 106 to 110 slender, sharp teeth that interlock like the bars of a cage, ideal for trapping slippery fish.

Diet and hunting

Gharials are fish specialists. Their thin snout meets little resistance in the water, so they can sweep it sideways to snap at passing fish. Young gharials also eat insects, tadpoles and frogs. For details, see what do gharials eat?

Crocodiles are generalists. Muggers eat fish, snakes, turtles, birds and mammals and also scavenge. Large saltwater crocodiles take fish, turtles, birds and big mammals such as deer, wild pigs and water buffalo, ambushing them at the water’s edge. The difference in jaw strength is enormous: in bite-force tests, a saltwater crocodile of about 531 kg (1,171 lb) recorded 16,414 newtons (3,690 pounds-force), the highest bite force ever measured directly in a living animal, while two gharials of 103 to 121 kg (227 to 267 lb) bit with about 1,800 to 2,000 newtons (400 to 450 pounds-force). The animals differed in size, but even allowing for that, the gharial’s slender jaws are built for speed, not crushing power.

Size and build

Male gharials are among the longest living crocodilians, typically 5 to 6 m (16 to 20 ft), and females reach about 4.5 m (15 ft). But they are slender: adult males average about 160 kg (350 lb), and a gharial weighs much less than a crocodile of the same length.

Saltwater crocodiles are the heavyweights. Adult males usually measure 3.5 to 5 m (11.5 to 16.5 ft) and on average weigh about 400 to 770 kg (900 to 1,700 lb), and the largest exceed 6 m (20 ft) and 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). Females are much smaller, usually under 3.5 m (11.5 ft). Muggers are medium-sized, rarely longer than 5 m (16 ft). For more on crocodile sizes, see how big do crocodiles get?

On land the difference is obvious too. Crocodiles can lift their bodies off the ground in a “high walk,” and muggers travel overland between pools in the hot season. Adult gharials have leg muscles too weak for the high walk and push themselves along on their bellies, so they rarely leave the river except to bask and nest.

Which is more dangerous to people?

Crocodiles, by a wide margin. The saltwater crocodile is one of the most dangerous animals in its range; in Australia it causes on average one or two deaths a year, and attacks also occur in India, Southeast Asia and New Guinea. Muggers attack people in parts of India and Sri Lanka, sometimes fatally, especially where people bathe, wash or fish in crocodile habitat.

Gharials are not considered a danger to people. Their jaws are too slender for large prey, and there is no reliable record of a gharial preying on a person. As with any large wild animal, the sensible approach is to keep a respectful distance and to follow local advice wherever crocodiles might be present.

Where they live in South Asia

All three of India’s crocodilians, the gharial, the mugger and the saltwater crocodile, live within South Asia, but they use different waters. Gharials need deep, flowing rivers with sandbanks, and today they survive mainly in the Chambal, Girwa, Gandak, Son and Ramganga rivers in India and in Nepal’s Chitwan and Bardiya National Parks.

Muggers are the most widespread, living in rivers, lakes, marshes and reservoirs from Iran and Pakistan through India and Nepal to Sri Lanka. They often share rivers with gharials, such as the Chambal and the Rapti. Where they meet, both species may use the same nesting grounds, but muggers also climb steep banks and move farther from the water to bask and nest. Saltwater crocodiles live mainly in coastal mangroves, estuaries and islands, such as the Sundarbans, Bhitarkanika in Odisha and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and range east through Southeast Asia to northern Australia.

Family tree: is a gharial a crocodile?

For a long time, scientists thought the gharial was only distantly related to all other living crocodilians, because its skull is so specialized. DNA studies have changed that picture. They show that the gharial’s closest living relative is the false gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii) of Malaysia and Indonesia, and that the two gharials together are more closely related to true crocodiles than either group is to alligators and caimans. The gharial and false gharial are thought to have split around 38 million years ago.

So a gharial is a crocodilian and a close cousin of crocodiles, but not a true crocodile. The same way of speaking applies to alligators, as explained in alligator vs crocodile.

Conservation status

The two groups have very different fortunes. The saltwater crocodile is listed as Least Concern because it remains widespread, and populations in Australia recovered strongly after hunting was banned in the early 1970s. The mugger is Vulnerable, threatened by habitat loss, fishing nets and conflict with people.

The gharial is Critically Endangered. Its population fell by an estimated 96 to 98 percent between the 1940s and 2006, and the IUCN’s 2019 assessment estimated only about 650 mature adults in the wild. Dams, sand mining, riverbank farming and fishing nets remain the main threats, and its survival depends on protecting the few rivers where it still breeds.