Reptile Awareness Day is on 21 October every year. It’s a day when reptile fans around the world come together to celebrate these amazing animals. 🐢🐍🐊
Reptiles are ancient creatures. They are believed to have existed on Earth for around 320 million years. 😲
Crocodiles, alligators, snakes, lizards and turtles are all reptiles. They all have dry, hard scales or a bony shell covering their body.
Most of them are cold-blooded, which means their body temperature matches the outside temperature. They need lots of sunshine to survive. 🌞
Let’s take a look at some of these record-breaking reptiles…
Heaviest reptile
This record belongs to the saltwater crocodile, which can be found in the tropical waters of Asia, the Pacific and Australia.
Adult males can weigh up to 1,200 kg (2,645 lb), which is heavier than a polar bear and a grizzly bear combined. 😵
The saltwater crocodile is also, unsurprisingly, the largest crocodilian species (living). 🐊
Large males can, on rare occasions, grow to a length of 7 metres (22 feet 11 inches) – almost as long as a London bus. 🚌
Most venomous land snake
Slithering around central Australia is the inland taipan, which has the most toxic venom of any snake in the world. 🐍
In a single strike, this snake can inject 60 mg of venom. Only 1 mg is needed to kill a human. 😱
Avoid this snake at all costs!
Longest venomous snake
King cobra is a deadly snake from India and southeast Asia. 🐍
They’re usually 3–4 m (10-13 ft) in length, but the longest specimen ever recorded grew to be 5.71 m (18 ft 8 in).
A king cobra spreads its neck-flap to make it look bigger and scarier. It’s also a helpful signal for us humans to run away! 😨
Largest lizard
Komodo dragons are the biggest and heaviest lizards on the planet.
Males average 2.59 m (8 ft 6 in) in length and weigh about 79–91 kg (175–200 lb).
These giant reptiles have been around for millions of years. They are now an endangered species and can only be found on four islands in Indonesia.
Komodo dragons are carnivores, which means they only eat meat. They enjoy feasting on deer, pigs, smaller Komodo dragons and even humans! 😋
Slimmest lizard
On the other hand, the most skinny lizard in the world is the Burton's legless snake lizard.
It can measure more than 50 cm (20 in) long, but is thinner than a pencil at its mid-body. ✏️
Slowest tortoise
The giant tortoise is the slowest tortoise species of all. 🐢
In a 'speed' test, a male giant tortoise could only move 4.57 m (14 ft 11 in) in 43.5 sec.
Even though a beautiful lady tortoise was placed at the finish line, the giant tortoise could only reach a speed of 0.23 mph – that’s 20x slower than a human walk. 🚶
Fastest tortoise
We’ve seen the slowest tortoise, so it’s only fair to include the world’s fastest tortoise too.
Bertie achieved a speed of 0.62 mph on 9 July 2014. That might sound slow, but it’s fast for a tortoise. Bertie is the Usain Bolt of tortoise racing! ⚡️
Check out some of these reptiles and more in the world’s largest reptile zoo 👇😃👇
