It is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the eastern, southern, and central regions of the continent, and lives in different types of aquatic environments such as lakes, rivers, swamps and marshlands.

The Nile crocodile is called[16] timsah al-nil in Arabic, mamba in Swahili, yaxaas in Somali, garwe in Shona, ngwenya in Ndebele, ngwena in Venda, kwena in Sotho and Tswana, and tanin ha-yeor in Hebrew.

However, the muscles responsible for opening the mouth are exceptionally weak, allowing a person to easily hold them shut, and even larger crocodiles can be brought under control by the use of duct tape to bind the jaws together.

[44] However, despite their robust skulls, alligators and caimans appear to be proportionately equal in biting force to true crocodiles, as the muscular tendons used to shut the jaws are similar in proportional size.

Only the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) (and perhaps some of the few very thin-snouted crocodilians) is likely to have noticeably diminished bite force compared to other living species due to its exceptionally narrow, fragile snout.

Therefore, a male saltwater crocodile, which had attained a length around 4.59 m (15 ft 1 in), was found to have the most powerful biting force ever tested in a lab setting for any type of animal.

[10][48][32][56] An old male individual, named "Big Daddy", housed at Mamba Village Centre, Mombasa, Kenya, is considered to be one of the largest living Nile crocodiles in captivity.

In 2007, at the Katavi National Park, Brady Barr captured a specimen measuring 5.36 m (17 ft 7 in) in total length (with a considerable portion of its tail tip missing).

[49] The bulk and mass of individual crocodiles can be fairly variable, some animals being relatively slender, while others being very robust; females are often bulkier than males of a similar length.

[24][71] Nile crocodiles may be able to tolerate an extremely broad range of habitat types, including small brackish streams, fast-flowing rivers, swamps, dams, and tidal lakes and estuaries.

They are often found in waters adjacent to various open habitats such as savanna or even semi-desert but can also acclimate to well-wooded swamps, extensively wooded riparian zones, waterways of other woodlands and the perimeter of forests.

[77] Genetic studies of Nile crocodiles captured in the wild in Florida have revealed that the specimens are all closely related to each other, suggesting a single source of the introduction.

[83] In the southern reaches of their range, as a response to dry, cool conditions that they cannot survive externally, crocodiles may dig and take refuge in tunnels and engage in aestivation.

Cott (1961) felt that gastroliths were most likely serving as ballast to provide stability and additional weight to sink in water, this bearing great probability over the theories that they assist in digestion and staving off hunger.

[18] Subadult and smaller adult Nile crocodiles use their bodies and tails to herd groups of fish toward a bank, and eat them with quick sideways jerks of their heads.

Their ability to lie concealed with most of their bodies under water, combined with their speed over short distances, makes them effective opportunistic hunters of larger prey.

[9] The Nile crocodile possesses unique predation behavior characterized by the ability of preying both within water, where it is best adapted, and out of it, which often results in unpredictable attacks on almost any other animal up to twice its size.

[32] In South Africa, a game warden far from water sources in a savannah-scrub area reported that he saw a crocodile jump up and grab a donkey by the neck and then drag the prey off.

Its place in the ecosystems it inhabits is unique, as it is the only large tetrapod carnivore that spends the majority of its life in water and hunting prey associated with aquatic zones.

Outside water, crocodiles can meet competition from other dominant savannah predators, notably big cats, which in Africa are represented by lions, cheetahs, and leopards.

[98] However, stunted sexual maturity appears to occur in populations at opposite extremes, both where crocodiles are thought to be overpopulated and where they are overly reduced to heavy hunting, sometimes with females laying eggs when they measure as small as 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) although it is questionable whether such clutches would bear healthy hatchlings.

Young crocodiles are shy and evasive due to the formidable array of predators that they must face in sub-Saharan Africa, spending little time sunning and moving about nocturnally whenever possible.

Many "large waders" are virulent predators of crocodile hatchlings, from dainty little egrets (Egretta garzetta) and compact hamerkops (Scopus umbretta) to towering saddle-billed storks (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis), goliath herons and shoebills (Balaeniceps rex).

When crocodile nests are dug out and the young placed in water by the mother, in areas such as Royal Natal National Park predators can essentially enter a feeding frenzy.

[10][9][114] Conservation organizations have determined that the main threats to Nile crocodiles, in turn, are loss of habitat, pollution, hunting, and human activities such as accidental entanglement in fishing nets.

[121] However, as is the case for many large animal species whether they are protected or not, persecution and poaching have continued apace and between the 1950s and 1980s, an estimated 3 million Nile crocodiles were slaughtered by humans for the leather trade.

The Nile crocodile is widely distributed, with strong, documented populations in many countries in eastern and southern Africa, including Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

[22][128] Retraction of wetlands due both to direct habitat destruction by humans and environmental factor possibly related to global warming is perhaps linked to the extinction of Nile crocodiles in the last few centuries in Syria, Israel and Tunisia.

[143][144] Despite historic claims that the victims of Nile crocodile attacks are usually women and children,[8] there is no detectable trends in this regard and any human, regardless of age, gender, or size is potentially vulnerable.

Many victims are caught while crouching, and people in jobs that might require heavy usage of water, including laundry workers, fisherman, game wardens and regional guides, are more likely to be attacked.