There are currently 24 widely-recognised species of crocodilians, with a few new ones to be added once they're formally described. Only a minority of these are considered dangerous to humans. Even then, most interactions between crocodiles and humans are non-eventful.

However, several hundred attacks (or bite incidents) on humans by crocodilians are reported annually, both non-fatal and fatal. Non-fatal attacks may also be debilitating. This "human-crocodile conflict" (HCC) is increasing each year as crocodile populations recover from decades of overhunting, and human populations continue to grow and encroach upon crocodile habitat. This competition for resources between crocodiles and humans is of serious conservation concern. Conservationists increasingly talk about "human-crocodile coexistence" as the way forward.

CrocBITE, the Worldwide Crocodilian Attack Database is an ongoing attempt to compile all reported attacks by any crocodilian species on a human, the purpose of which is to better understand risk factors leading to such attacks and ultimately help to improve human safety and, as a consequence, crocodilian conservation. Although this is an ongoing and regularly updated project, attack reporting and record-keeping is highly variable across many different countries, and hence the database does not pretend to be complete.

This site provides a means of accessing the database for analysis and educational purposes, and you can contribute to its ongoing efforts by submitting attack data to a moderator. CrocBITE recognises the important and valuable contributions of a large number of people, all of whom are credited on the appropriate page. Please help to improve the database with your own data, and by bringing any errors or omissions to our attention.

Please select an option or use the menu bar above:

• Learn about human-crocodile conflict
• Contribute a documented incident
• Explore the database
• Report an error
• Contributors

Acknowledgments

CrocBITE was funded by the Innovation@CDU Grants Program (Charles Darwin University), Big Gecko Crocodilian Research, and crocodilian.com. The project is coordinated by, and the main site content written by Adam Britton and Erin Britton (Big Gecko). Primary data entry by Brandon Sideleau (California State University), with additional contributions attributed within the database and the contributors page. Database programming and site design by John Brisbin (BoaB Interactive). Live data visualisation and filtering generously supported by OpenDataSoft. The CrocBITE team can be contacted at [email protected].