Share
24th September 2023
12:23pm BST
Crocodiles aren't known for expressing their feelings.
But the snappy reptiles may have just displayed "emotional empathy" in a bizarre incident in India, one publication suggests.
The scaly predators, known for devouring whatever comes there way, seemingly decided to lead with kindness when a dog ended up in a river after being chased by a pack of feral dogs.
A report on the incident in the Journal of Threatened Taxa asks whether it could be possible that the crocodiles decided to help out their four-legged friend, rather than death rolling it into a meal.
Read also:
According to the journal, the unlucky hound was chased into the Savitri River in India’s Maharashtra.
The dog probably thought the river was safe and the strays would prefer to stay dry - but it had failed to noticed three mugger crocs - a medium-sized, broad-shouldered reptile - were lurking nearby,
The trio started creeping on the dog, seemingly eyeing it up as a meal, but instead of biting down it with their snouts, they edged it to safety.
The adult crocs – which are described as ‘opportunistic predators’ by the Wildlife Institute of India – even took the dog away from the feral pack to an area of riverbank that it could get out and escape safely from.
The journal suggested the reptiles might have been demonstrating "sentient behaviour suggestive of cross-species empathy".
But rather than being completely unthinkable, the publication suggested the incident was "curious" and only, out-of-character for the crocodiles.
Mugger crocs can grow up to 16 feet long and weigh over 450 kilograms, and have even been identified as a threat to humans who come near their habitat in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
In the journal, it is acknowledged that the perceived kindness of the crocs could simply have been down to them not being hungry, but the conclusion sticks with the more positive and cheering theory.
The journal states: "Given that the mugger was well within the striking range and could have easily devoured the dog, yet none of them attacked and instead chose to nudge it towards the bank, implies that the hunger drive was absent.
"We propose this to be a case of sentient behaviour of the mugger resulting in cross-species 'emotional empathy', which is not a very extensively investigated behaviour, though capacity of one species to experience the emotional feelings of another species merits recognition.
"The curious case of a dog 'rescued' by the group of crocodiles reported here seems more on lines of empathy than altruistic behaviour."
The journal noted that there is "little research done on such mental faculties of reptiles."
Naturally, not everyone agrees on crocodiles having a sensitive side.
LiveScience quotes Duncan Leitch, a biologist specialising in the neurophysiology of reptiles at the University of California, Los Angeles, as having said: "Crocodilians do have a sophisticated suite of behaviours.
"But some of these conclusions are using a human definition of intelligence and trying to find that in crocodilians."
Related links:
