A crocodile leads a dog to safety (India).
A dog fleeing from a pack of wild dogs encountered further danger when it swam in a crocodile-infested river. Instead of giving the dog a treat, the crocodile seemed to lead it to safety.
The researchers published images of this moment in the August issue of the Journal of Threatened Taxa. The researchers were studying the behavior of robber crocodiles in the Savitri River in Maharashtra, India.
“These crocodiles actually touched the dogs with their noses,” the researchers report, writing that the crocodiles “appear to have coaxed (the dogs) to safety.”
While it may seem surprising that the reptile did not jump at the seemingly easy meal opportunity, biologist Chris Murray of Southeastern Louisiana University told Insider that there are many reasons why the alligators let the dog through.
Maybe it was full or felt too weak to ambush its prey. Or maybe he had a negative experience trying to eat the dog in the past, he said.
In natural feeding ecology, there is always this kind of cost-benefit analysis,” Murray said.
Murray doesn’t believe the animals are as sympathetic as researchers say they are.
The coastal areas of India and Sri Lanka have the highest populations of Magar crocodiles near humans and the highest frequency of human attacks in the world, Murray says. So I don’t think it’s possible for crocodiles to be compassionate toward humans,” he says.
But he agrees with the paper’s authors that humans tend to underestimate the cognitive abilities of crocodiles.
Murray knows of instances where crocodiles use sticks to lure birds or help them find food in groups. He has also seen alligators appear to learn from past experiences.
Of course, that is mostly anecdotal, and I have such anecdotes myself,” Murray says. So I think their cognitive abilities, their ability to judge what is around them and their memory is much better than we give them credit for.
They are not just mean, lazy reptiles,” he says. But he doesn’t seem to pity the suffering dogs.
Source: A crocodile leads a dog to safety (India).
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