Crocodiles?
 

I am not posting this message to be silly, so please approach this on a serious note. I just booked a trip at the Rockhouse hotel in May 06 and came across some pictures at Trip Advisor of a croc laying on some rocks next to a villa. I also found some info on a science site that saltwater/river crocs are common in Jamaica. This was quite surprising to me, as one of the reasons I planned this trip was to snorkel around the caves. Please advise: Have there been any croc attacks in the water near this hotel? Should I be concerned when snorkeling? I appreciate the feedback

Don't worry. Everything will be irie mon.

Yes, there are crocodile in Jamaica, largely in mangroove/swamp areas, as well as in Font Hill Sanctuary, at the Sandals Whitehouse (where the nightguards are said to sleep in the trees), and more famously and the object of boat tours upriver, in Black River's Great Morass. There's a huge swamp on the other side of the road in Negril. But these crocs, tho not Disney themepark animals, are not the saltwater crocs, say of Australia.
They're more active at night and take siestas mid-day on rocks, stream banks,etc. However, I'd have no qualms about snorkelling off Rockhouse...

I have never seen a croc in Negril. I know some exist, as tiv says, in the morass, but on the cliffs?? That's one very lost croc.

J'can crocs are small fish eaters.

Thanks for the info, it's much appreciated. Last thing I'd want to do is swim up on one of those bad boys in the water

Are these particularly small crocodiles? As I recall from my "Wild Kingdom" and "Crocodile Hunter" shows, crocs will eat anything they can get their jaws on e.g. goats, antelopes, people...? I didn't realize crocs were common in Jamaica. Is it established that there are no saltwater crocodiles there?

Jamaican crocs aka alligator on island
are saltwater/river estuary and swamp dwellers, up to 10 feet for the old ones. Outside the Negril marsh, they're rarely seen in Negril (which is why
the TripAdvisor pix was taken -- as a rare occurance). I know only of two
'incidences': one, a Smithsonian
ornithologist who stepped on a croc's nose while tramping thru the Font Hill Sanctuary past Whitehouse -- he escaped with some lacerations; two, a 'UK-blak', a Jamaican living in Britain, who
was live-bait casting in Black River where the crocs are getting used to being fed by the tourist boats. She was less lucky. I've come up from spearfishing just off the Parottee Point area to find a croc beside my boat. They're normally skittish, but still unnerving.

I'm always amazed to see people spear fishing in Black River but there it is, people do it all the time, crocs and all.

Liza:Remember ' Charlie ' the big old croc king of the river? Charlie Swabey, a Jamaican gamewarden and spearhead behind their protection/game laws had to shoot him as the culprit 3 years ago in the Black River incident. Seems the competing pontoon boats on the other side of the river were taking to putting chicken carcass in river to lure crocs to THEIR side. And that's where the woman was taken...

Hmmph. I've been on the river twice and our boat has NEVER fed the crocs. Then again I have not taken a tour boat, likely never will...

rock; I'm glad that liverton mentioned a reserve for the wonderful Jamaican croc, also called the "northern jacana crododile". It's found along the coast in marshes and mangroves, and their numbers are still plentiful along the Black River and Upper Morass. Some of the cruise boat captains actually feed the ones they know chicken parts by hand. I don't think this is a good practice, for the jacana crocs are normally shy...not good for them to expect handouts from humans. Hopefully, they'll hang out around the tourist boat tours for more handouts, but who knows? Still, I wouldn't worry too much. They are scary...more so than alligators, due to their cone-shaped teeth. They warm themselves by opening their mouths, because blood vessels are numerous and close to the skin inside their "gums." It's too bad, they inhabited Jamaica from ancient times, when the island was originally formed, when it drifted away from other land masses! So, they're totally adapted after 200,000,000 years! Actually, they're also in south Florida, Cuba and Haiti...most people don't realize that.They've been killed off by poachers for their skins, and in Jamaica, like the U.S., by development and draining of wetlands. I don't think you'll be snorkeling in mangrove swamps or marshers in the areas I mentioned above (I wouldn't). But, if you snorkel in a kind of quiet, calm and brackish lagoon near the Black River or in Negril, you may see one around you. They will eat any thing that sucks in oxygen, including humans...although this is rare, if at all. Has any poster heard of a croc attack in Jamaica? I'd like to know if you have. In Florida, of course, we've had quite a few alligator attacks due to the encroachment of urban sprawl into their native habitat. Also, for the record, I'd like to know how big they are from those who spotted one; the bigger they are, the bigger their prey. From what I've heard, though, they are very shy and hide from humans. I wouldn't snorkel around a tourist development recently built around by an aged pond or wetlands area in Florida, though, if it was once populated by alligators, and probably still is...get my drift? Robert

In the 60s, shooting crocs and tanning
hides for export was fairly common if not spoken about. Protecting environment and species is fairly low on the totem pole of government issues/everyday Jamaican's consciousness and life. The Font Hill Sanctuary is one of the few conservation areas/used to be a public beach but with Sandals Whitehouse being built on the major marsh/croc home, many moved down the coast to Font. The only public beach in Westmoreland, Bluefields Bay beach, is similarly threatened by a proposed mega RIU now being looked at with dollar signs by the government since the money is from Spain. It's being fought quietly but
firmly. Money talks on island. But the conservation movement, backed by people like Charles Swaby, who also owns the
croc park on the North Coast near Falmouth where the James Bond film was done, is increasing in strength and
Jamaicans are becoming more aware of what they lose when Sandals and Riu come into the neighborhood.
entirely protected

A 10 foot saltwater croc found it's way to the beach at Hedo 2 back in October, a few weeks before we got there. It was washed into the ocean from a nearby river after very heavy rains from one of the tropical storms that passed by. The Hedo dive guys along with a couple guys from Sandals wrestled it and put it on the back of a truck and took it back to the river. They have pictures of it at the photo desk at Hedo.