A stray dog that was quickly surrounded by three crocodiles as soon as it ran into their river may have thought that it wouldn’t survive another minute.
But in an astonishing turn of events, two of the crocodiles decided to nudge the young stray, which had jumped into the river to escape a pack of feral dogs, to safety with their snouts.
Experts say that instead of devouring the stray dog, the marsh crocodiles ‘guided’ it away from where the barking pack of dogs were waiting for it on the river bank in the state of Maharashtra, western India.
‘These crocodiles were actually touching the dog with their snout and nudging it to move further for a safe ascent on the bank and eventually escape,’ the scientists wrote in a report published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa.
‘Given that the crocodile 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.’
A stray dog that was quickly surrounded by three crocodiles as soon as it ran into their river may have thought that it wouldn’t survive another minute
But in an astonishing turn of events, two of the crocodiles decided to nudge the young stray, which had jumped into the river to escape a pack of feral dogs, to safety with their snouts.
The scientists are still unsure as to why the marsh crocodiles, which can weigh up to 1,000 pounds, didn’t see it as an opportunity to eat the dog.
But they say that marsh crocodiles, known as muggers, are not always aggressive and that their emotional intelligence could have been on display in this case.
‘Emotional empathy’, which allows a species ‘to experience feelings for another’, has not been investigated in the muggers, the scientists said.
‘The curious case of a dog “rescued” by the group of crocodiles reported her seems more on lines of empathy than altruistic behaviour,’ they said.
The scientists added: ‘Reptiles have been underestimated as far as animal cognition is concerned.’
Experts say that instead of devouring the stray dog, the marsh crocodiles ‘guided’ it away from where the barking pack of dogs were waiting for it on the river bank in the state of Maharashtra, western India
The stray dog was trying to escape from a pack of feral dogs
Marsh crocodiles are most commonly found in India and adult males can reach up to 18ft in length and weight up to 1,000 pounds.
The researchers also detailed how they made the ‘curious’ discovery that marsh crocodiles also adore marigolds. They said the muggers were often found floating and banking in the yellow flowers along Savitri river.
They believed that this could be due to the properties of the flower, which would help protect the crocodiles from fungi and bacteria.
‘This behaviour is novel and intriguing,’ the researchers said while adding the behaviour needed further investigation.’