{"id":2191036,"date":"2026-05-11T18:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2191036"},"modified":"2026-05-09T11:52:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T10:52:56","slug":"9-animals-that-could-take-on-and-probably-kill-a-saltwater-crocodile-just-which-creatures-are-able-to-take-on-one-of-the-worlds-deadliest-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/9-animals-that-could-take-on-and-probably-kill-a-saltwater-crocodile-just-which-creatures-are-able-to-take-on-one-of-the-worlds-deadliest-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"9 animals that could take on (and probably kill) a saltwater crocodile: Just which creatures are able to take on one of the world&#8217;s deadliest animals?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The saltwater crocodile, also known as the\u00a0estuarine crocodile or saltie, is the largest of all living reptiles. Males can exceed 6m in length and a tonne in weight and are widely touted as producing the strongest bite-force of any animal.<\/p>\n<p>Like other crocodilians, they dismantle their prey using a manoeuvre called the \u2018death roll\u2019, which involves grasping a limb or head in their jaws and rolling vigorously in the water until it separates from the body. Their heavily armoured bodies endow them with an air of utter impregnability. But can their defences be breached? And if so, by whom?<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Animals that could kill a saltwater crocodile<\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Orca<\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/02\/Killer-whales-attacking-sea-lions.m4v\" poster=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/05\/Killer-whales.jpg\" preload=\"none\" controls=\"controls\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Killer whales attacking sea lions in Argentina. Credit: Getty<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Saltwater crocodiles can thrive in a range of habitats, including coastal waters, rivers, estuaries, swamps and marshes. They are quite capable of making long journeys across the open ocean, which can bring them in contact with\u00a0orcas:\u00a0apex predators\u00a0with a similarly strong bite.<\/p>\n<p>Orcas are around four times the weight of salties, faster and more agile. They have been observed working as a pod to kill\u00a0blue whales, immobilising them with an onslaught of biting and head-butting, so salties are small-game by comparison. As far as we know, though, there are no records of orca attacking salties. But that doesn\u2019t mean it doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Great white shark<\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/01\/Great-white-shark-GettyImages-3B2FBBBE_0011.mp4\" poster=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/05\/Great-white-shark-swimming.jpg\" preload=\"none\" controls=\"controls\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Great white shark. Credit: Getty<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Salties might also encounter sharks on their oceanic forays. If any shark is going to get the better of a saltie, it will have to be a big one, and surely the\u00a0great white, the biggest of all predatory sharks, is the most likely candidate.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest great whites and the biggest salties are well matched for size, and both are armed with deadly dentition. But in the open ocean, a great white is in its element, while a saltie \u2013 an\u00a0ambush predator\u00a0that usually lurks close to shore \u2013 is a bit of a fish out of water, which might tip things in the shark\u2019s favour. Again, though, it seems that no one has ever found themselves in the right place at the right time to witness the outcome of such an altercation.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Humpback whale<\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/04\/Humpback-whale-breach.mp4\" poster=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/05\/Humpback-whale.jpg\" preload=\"none\" controls=\"controls\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Humpback whale breach. Credit: Getty<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Another ocean-going species that salties might wish to avoid is the\u00a0humpback whale, as these gentle giants have a feisty side. They are the only species of cetacean that will actively approach pods of orcas to drive them away. Orcas are partial to humpback calves, so the whales have good selfish reasons to deter them. But there\u2019s an altruistic element to it, too: their protective instincts extend to driving off orcas that threaten other animals, such as\u00a0dolphins,\u00a0seals\u00a0and big fish.<\/p>\n<p>Humpbacks\u2019 bravery and selflessness might stem from their being the only large whales equipped with weaponry at both ends. At the back, the regulation tail flukes are capable of delivering a mighty slap. Up front, there are two strikingly elongated pectoral flippers, each up to 5m long and weighing over a ton, which can be wielded offensively with both finesse and power. Each has a knobbly leading edge often encrusted with the jagged flesh-tearing shells of\u00a0barnacles.<\/p>\n<p>If these weapons are good enough to see off a pod of orca, what could they do to a lone saltie about a 40th of their own weight? There\u2019s no reason to think humpbacks and salties ever come into violent conflict, but it might pay the crocodiles to give the whales a wide berth, just in case.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reticulated python<\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/07\/Reticulated-python-.mp4\" poster=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/05\/Reticulated-python.jpg\" preload=\"none\" controls=\"controls\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Reticulated python. Credit: Getty<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Like a\u00a0boa\u00a0or\u00a0anaconda, a python kills its prey by constriction rather than with\u00a0venom. Following an initial grasping bite, it coils its body around its victim and squeezes very hard, causing death by asphyxiation. The snake\u2019s slack-hinged jaws and elastic skin enable a gape wide enough to allow the passage of animals of a girth far exceeding its own.<\/p>\n<p>Reaching over 6m in length, the reticulated python is the world\u2019s longest snake, and is\u00a0big enough to swallow a human whole. Its range in South and Southeast Asia overlaps with that of the saltwater crocodile, so the two species might come into contact. However, a mature saltie is three times as long as a human is tall and significantly girthier \u2013 too big a mouthful, perhaps, even for this giant serpent.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Elephant<\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/06\/African-elephant.mp4\" poster=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/05\/African-elephants.jpg\" preload=\"none\" controls=\"controls\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>African elephants. Credit: Getty<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to Rudyard Kipling\u2019s\u00a0<em>Just So Stories<\/em>, it was a painful tug of war with a crocodile on the banks of the \u2018the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River\u2019 that gave the elephant its extraordinary trunk. But elephants have more reason than that to be wary of crocodiles, as footage of a saltie killing an Asian elephant calf in Borneo was captured in 2022. And elephants supposedly never forget.<\/p>\n<p>An African elephant can easily kill a crocodile by trampling it, and there\u2019s little reason to think an Asian elephant couldn\u2019t do the same to a saltie. It could probably do it by sitting down on it.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Big cats<\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/05\/Jaguar-swimming.mp4\" poster=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/05\/Jaguar-swimming.jpg\" preload=\"none\" controls=\"controls\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Jaguar swimming in a river in Brazil. Credit: Getty<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In South America,\u00a0jaguars\u00a0routinely make short work of\u00a0caimans, smaller relatives of the crocodiles, dispatching them with a bone-crushing bite to the back of the skull. So, scale things up to a really big cat, such as a\u00a0lion\u00a0or a\u00a0tiger, and a really big crocodile, such as a saltie, and we might have a contest on our hands.<\/p>\n<p>Lions perhaps have the best chance here, in that they usually hunt cooperatively, so could overwhelm a saltie through weight of numbers. However, while salties occur in Australia, Southeast Asia, and the south-west Pacific, lions are confined to Africa and a small population in the west of India, in which case, its unlikely that they ever get to meet. That said, lions were once more widespread across the Indian subcontinent, so it\u2019s quite possible that they could have come to blows in the not-too-distant past.<\/p>\n<p>Tigers, like jaguars, are solitary beasts, and, unlike lions, they do share territory with salties. And they are known to take crocodilians occasionally \u2013 they too have been filmed killing crocs with a bite to the base of the skull. Whether they could handle a full-grown saltie in this manner is another matter. Its quite possible that any such a contest would be decided by who got the first bite in.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Human<\/h3>\n<p><em>Homo sapiens<\/em>\u00a0is almost certainly the saltwater crocodile\u2019s most significant predator. Aboriginal people in northern Australia have harvested its eggs for millennia, and it was hunted intensely for its valuable skin from the 1940s until the 1970s, when it received legal protection. But we haven\u2019t had it entirely our own way. Salties kill and eat people with some regularity: there were 106 crocodile-inflicted deaths in Australia alone between 1971 and 2013.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hippopotamus<\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/07\/Hippo-running.mp4\" poster=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/05\/Hippo-running.jpg\" preload=\"none\" controls=\"controls\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Hippo running. Credit: Getty<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Hippos\u00a0are not renowned for the sweetness of their personalities. But they reserve a special sort of tetchiness for the crocodiles that share their stretch of the river. Nile crocodiles can do little harm to a healthy adult hippo, but they are very partial to their calves.<\/p>\n<p>Little surprise that hippos will take every opportunity they can to make crocodiles feel unwelcome: there\u2019s no shortage of videos out there of hippos doing serious damage to Nile crocodiles that have got too close. But a Nile crocodile is merely the second biggest crocodilian on Earth. We may never know if a hippo is capable of dispatching a saltie with the same brutal efficiency, because the two species live on different continents.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cane toad<\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2024\/05\/Cane-toad.mp4\" poster=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/05\/Cane-toad.jpg\" preload=\"none\" controls=\"controls\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Cane toad. Credit: Getty<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, we have a true giant killer. This David to the saltie\u2019s Goliath is the\u00a0cane toad, an amphibian imported to north-eastern Australia from its native tropical America in the 1930s to control agricultural pests, since when, it has spread eastwards spectacularly.<\/p>\n<p>Protected by potent toxins secreted from glands in its head, the cane toad poses a danger to native predators \u2013 quolls,\u00a0snakes\u00a0and monitor lizards \u2013 that have not learned to avoid it. Some populations of Australian freshwater crocodiles have been reduced by over 70 per cent as a result of toad poisonings. Salties are more tolerant of the toxins, but not immune to them, and may receive a lethal dose if they eat enough toads.<\/p>\n<p><em>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/animals-that-can-kill-a-saltwater-crocodile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">article<\/a> <\/em><em>by Stuart Blackman was first published by Discover Wildlife on 3 May 2026. Lead Image: Saltwater crocodile. Credit: Getty.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Help to protect wildlife<\/h2>\n<p><em>Protect wildlife by making a monthly donation as little as $5.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/install-popup-button.js\" id=\"donorbox-popup-button-installer\"> <\/script><a id=\"preview_inline_popup_button\" class=\"dbox-donation-button\" style=\"background: #0dc5dc; color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; display: flex; gap: 8px; width: fit-content; font-size: 16px; border-radius: 5px; line-height: 24px; padding: 8px 24px;\" href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/focusing-on-wildlife-needs-your-support?default_interval=m&amp;amount=25\" data-reminder-widget-enabled=\"true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">PROTECT WILDLIFE<\/a><script type=\"module\" src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/widgets.js\" async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It only takes a minute!<\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The saltwater crocodile, also known as the\u00a0estuarine crocodile or saltie, is the largest of all living reptiles. Males can exceed 6m in length and a tonne in weight and are widely touted as producing the strongest bite-force of any animal. Like other crocodilians, they dismantle their prey using a manoeuvre called the \u2018death roll\u2019, which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1178,"featured_media":2206097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/05\/Saltwater-crocodile-in-Australia.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6985,5],"tags":[5478,213,4138,12053,2965,3797,2414,2785,2783,2938,11813,3421,3816,2384,2786,4146],"class_list":["post-2191036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wildlife","tag-african-elephant","tag-asian-elephant","tag-big-cats","tag-blue-whales","tag-cane-toad","tag-dolphins","tag-elephants","tag-estuarine-crocodile","tag-freshwater-crocodile","tag-great-white-shark","tag-hippos","tag-humpback-whale","tag-killer-whales","tag-nile-crocodiles","tag-saltwater-crocodile","tag-tigers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2191036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2206097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2191036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2191036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2191036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}