<P> One thousand to 2,000 American crocodiles live in Mexico and Central and South America, but populations are data deficient . The American crocodile is considered a vulnerable species, but has not been assessed since 1996 . It has an estimated wild population of 500 to 1,200 in southern Florida . On March 20, 2007, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service declassified the American crocodile as an endangered species, downgrading its status to "threatened"; the reptile remains protected from illegal harassing, poaching, or killing under the federal Endangered Species Act . In southern Florida, 67.8% of American crocodile mortality was attributed most likely to road collisions (found dead by the road), 10.5% were due to intentional killing and only 4.9% could be contributed to natural causes (the remaining balance were causes unknown). </P> <P> American crocodiles are dangerous to humans; attacks in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama are not unprecedented . These attacks rarely make international news, so this species is not as well - documented as a man - eater, as are its relatives . The species is often reportedly timid, and seemingly lacks the propensity to attack people as regularly as Old World crocodiles do . Crocodiles are, as a general rule, more aggressive than alligators, at least towards humans . The American crocodile rates, temperamentally somewhere in the middle of all crocodilians . A study by the IUCN found that the American crocodile has the highest incidence of reported attacks on humans of any of the crocodilians from the Americas, but fatalities were rare . The estimated number of attacks is considerably smaller than those by the saltwater and Nile crocodiles (C. niloticus). The saltwater and Nile crocodiles are considered to be the most aggressive and dangerous species towards humans, with their large sizes and aggressive behavior combined with low - income socio - economic situations of local people in Africa and Asia resulting in frequent unsafe encounters and high numbers of fatal attacks that may annually range into the hundreds . Reportedly, the Cuban crocodile (C. rhombifer) is rather more aggressive in interspecies interactions than the American crocodile and apparently attacks and displaces American crocodiles when they are kept in mixed species enclosures at zoos or at crocodile farms together, even though it is smaller than the American species . However, attacks on humans are rarely reportedly in Cuban crocodiles, undoubtedly due its much more limited habitat and range . In May 2007, two instances occurred within one week of children being attacked and killed by this species--one in Mexico just south of Puerto Vallarta and one in Costa Rica . On August 24, 2014, a man and a woman were swimming in a canal in Gables by the Sea, a community in Coral Gables, Florida, at 2: 00 AM, in a canal where crocodiles were known to occur, when they were bitten in the shoulder and the hand by an American crocodile . Although the crocodile was 12' 1" in length, and weighed an estimated 550 lbs, it did not press the attack, but released and moved away from its victims . (Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, Crocodile Response Program) This was the first documented wild crocodile attack on humans in Florida since records of human - crocodile conflict have been kept . On May 19, 2015, a seven - year - old boy was attacked and killed by an American Crocodile in the Barra Santa Ana estuary near the city of Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico . This was reportedly the eighth crocodile attack in the Barra Santa Ana estuary in the last two years . There have reportedly been 36 American crocodile attacks on humans from 1995 to 2017 in the Cancun area of southeastern Mexico . </P>

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