The world’s largest captive crocodile has died

Cassius, the world’s largest captive crocodile, died after his health rapidly declined in mid-October, according to a Facebook post from Marineland Melanesia Crocodile Habitat & Gift Shop. Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) 5.48 m long received the Guinness World Record for the largest living captive crocodile in the world in 2011. But since no one has measured Cassius’s size since then, it may have grown larger. This animal has the ability to grow up to 7 m long, according to Live Science.

Cassius has lived at the Marineland Melanesia Crocodile Habitat zoo on Australia’s Green Island since 1987. He was captured on the Finniss River near Darwin in 1984 due to his aggressive behavior and problems. “As an apex predator, this large crocodile causes all kinds of problems from catching and eating livestock to attacking boat propellers,” said a representative of Marineland Melanesia. “Also here, it had many scars from battles, including losing its left front leg, part of its muzzle and about 15 cm of the tip of its tail.”

Cassius was moved to an assisted care facility in Cairns on October 5 and his health deteriorated shortly after. It is very old and is believed to have lived beyond the normal lifespan of wild crocodiles. Although experts are not sure, they think the giant crocodile could have been more than 120 years old when it died. At the time of his arrest, Cassius was estimated to be between 30 and 80 years old. The growth rate of crocodiles slows down significantly after they reach maturity.

“There is no way to know Cassius’s real age because he was born in the wild and his age is only an estimate,” Toody Scott, one of the staff who takes care of Cassius at Marineland Crocodile Park, shared.

Despite its enormous size, Cassius is not the largest crocodile ever swallowed in history. That record belongs to the saltwater crocodile Lolong, caught in the Philippines in September 2011, and measuring 6.17 m long before dying in 2013.