American crocodiles live in the river mouth and lagoon behind the village. The many babies seen this fall are 2026 hatchlings, about 2 to 5 months old. Nobody has counted crocodiles here, so this guide says how sure each part is.
In late October the small crocodiles along the lagoon edge are this year's young: hatched around late May to July and now roughly 37–50 cm long. Adults share the same water. Treat any group of young as possibly guarded.
Eggs laid. February–March at La Ventanilla and Palmasola, Oaxaca (about 15.9°N); April–May at Cuitzmala, Jalisco (19.4°N). The general Mexican rule is March–May, sometimes from February.[5][2][1][6]
Hatching. Incubation takes about 77–90 days. Oaxaca nests hatched 14–28 May (2018); Jalisco nests late June to mid-August. La Saladita sits at 17.8°N, between the two, so late May to July is the likely window here (inferred).[2][1]
Young of the year. Young stay near where they hatched for several weeks, some for months or years.[6] Around Ixtapa–Zihuatanejo, 7 of the 8 iNaturalist records marked juvenile (within 50 km) are dated 20 July–2 August.[7]
Rain and the beach. Most rain falls June–October (ERA5 median).[8] At Playa Linda, Ixtapa, crocodiles reach the beach when lagoon outlets open, especially after heavy rain.[9][10] Whether and when the mouth here opens is not recorded, so the beach row is inferred.
Nesting and hatching months come from studies in Oaxaca and Jalisco; no Guerrero nesting study exists. Rain months are from the ERA5 weather model, not a rain gauge.
A crowd of young in October shows that crocodiles bred near the lagoon this year and that many of the young are still alive. It says little about whether the population is growing.
June 2026 was wetter than usual. July to September was the driest of 2015–2026. These are ERA5 reanalysis figures for a grid cell about 31 km across, not a rain gauge, with data through 20 October.[8]
Size classes from a Jalisco study;[3] eggs and incubation from Jalisco and Oaxaca;[1][5] hatchling size and growth from Oaxaca and Puerto Vallarta;[15][3] diet from the species account.[16]
"Posiblemente la hembra cuida a las crías por algunas semanas.""Possibly the female cares for the young for a few weeks."[13]
The 10 m figure is this site's guidance, not an official one; no official minimum distance from PROFEPA, SEMARNAT or Protección Civil is known.
Advice from Zihuatanejo municipal and news sources:[9][19][10] stay away from the water, don't feed, no sudden movements, swim only at supervised beaches, report aggressive animals, and take extra care near river mouths after heavy rain. The after-dark rule and the leash and children advice are this site's own.
Conflict in Mexico is blamed less on more crocodiles than on lost habitat, which crowds them into the places people and their animals use.[12]
Capturing, moving or handling crocodiles, and any work at nests, is for authorized people. Penalties for killing, harassing or feeding crocodiles are not covered on this page.
Total length is roughly 7 times the head length, from snout tip to the back of the skull. The ratio was worked out for saltwater crocodiles 1.2–4.2 m long in Australia; for American crocodiles it is an approximation.[33]
Use these when logging a sighting. For young ones, compare with something nearby of known size; the head rule is not meant for them.
In October, a crocodile near half a meter is this year's young. Last year's survivors should be clearly bigger, around 60 cm or more (inferred).
| Year | Crocodile records | All iNaturalist records | Crocodiles per 1,000 records |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 18 | 3,481 | 5.2 |
| 2023 | 33 | 5,374 | 6.1 |
| 2024 | 28 | 5,129 | 5.5 |
| 2025 | 42 | 7,637 | 5.5 |
| 2026 (to 27 Oct) | 46 | 6,864 | 6.7 |
All counts within 50 km of La Saladita (17.8375, -101.7606), pulled 27 October 2026.[35] The rate moved from 5.5 to 6.7 per 1,000, a change small enough to come from a few batch uploads.
Professional counts are night spotlight surveys from a boat on fixed routes.[37] Don't copy that from the bank. The steps below are a daytime design built from those methods, not a published protocol. Counts from the same points with the same effort give crocodiles seen per hour, which can be compared year to year.
Labels: read, source opened and the passage read; partly read, part of the text extracted and read; summary, from a summary of the source; search snippet, from a search result only; data, counted from the database. Distances are straight lines from La Saladita. Updated 27 October 2026. More records and photos: American crocodile species page, the lagoon, reptiles and amphibians.