Ecological Risk Screening Summary - Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) - Uncertain Risk

Crocodylus niloticus is a freshwater crocodile native throughout Africa. There is a great deal of information available on this species biology and distribution. It is heavily traded, both as a live organism and as animal parts. It has been introduced outside of its native range in Florida and Mississippi. Individuals introduced to Mississippi were quickly captured; individuals introduced to Florida survived in the wild for two years but did not form an established population within that time. Threats posed by C. niloticus to humans, livestock, and fishing gear have been documented within the native range. However, neither impacts nor lack of impacts has been documented from locations outside the native range. The history of invasiveness is classified as No Known Nonnative Population because of the lack of establishment outside the native range and because trade in live organisms is not sufficiently high to warrant a classification of Low history of invasiveness. There is significant taxonomic uncertainty as to whether Crocodylus niloticus is a single species or two species, Crocodylus niloticus and Crocodylus suchus. This ERSS follows World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS; Uetz 2017) and the global Reptile Database (Uetz et al. 2021a,b) in treating C. niloticus as a valid single species. The climate match for the contiguous United States was High overall, with the highest matches occurring along the southern border from California to Florida. The certainty of this assessment is Low due to a lack of information on impacts of introductions and taxonomic uncertainty. The overall risk assessment category for Crocodylus niloticus is Uncertain.