Crocodiles Love the Sound Of Crying Babies and Everyone Has Questions
On Thursday, August 10, Science Magazine shared an article explaining a new study conducted that showed crocodiles are very attracted to the sound of crying infants and other primates. The most disturbing fact was the more distressed the crying sounded, the more interested these large semiaquatic reptiles were.
Here's the following article shared on Facebook.
Published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the Royal Society's main biological-research journal, the research showed that when scientists played the crocodiles audio recordings of infants (including baby bonobos, chimpanzees, and humans) crying the crocodiles were drawn to those that seemed the most distressed.
The reactions could be interpreted as a predatory instinct by the reptiles, but the researchers said it may also suggest a maternal instinct in female crocodiles.
Facebook users reacted to this news and @June comments, "Crying primates (human beings) sound like dying animals so, yeah, makes sense. We are animals after all." @Aidan says, "Biologist part of me: "Oh, that's a super-cool, highly adaptive trait!" Human part of me" "Yikes!"
Researchers used loudspeakers to play the cries to about 300 Nile crocodiles at Crocoparc in Agadir, Morocco. Many of the crocodiles responding quickly.
The higher the infant's distress level, the more the crocodiles would respond.
"Our experiments obviously do not mean that crocodiles cannot be attracted by other signals than distress calls — they are opportunistic hunters," the authors wrote in the study. "But they suggest that the readiness of these animals to react increases with the presence of acoustic features marking a level of distress."
According to National Geographic, Africa's largest crocodilian can reach a maximum size of about 20 feet and can weigh up to 1,650 pounds.
Newsweek reported, Crocodile attacks are all too common in regions populated by the reptiles, with some estimates saying that around 1,000 people are killed every year by the creatures.
In 2019 alone, Nile crocodiles killed at least 48 people in Africa, according to CrocBITE, a global crocodilian attack database. Over half of Nile crocodile attacks are thought to be fatal.
Well, sounds like a rather good reason to leave your baby with a caregiver if you plan on visiting an area with crocodiles!
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