Crocodile Hunting a Team Effort

Crocodiles may not seem all that sophisticated and intelligent, but they have learned to work in teams in order to hunt their prey, according to a new study.

Studying these predators in the wild is notoriously difficult because they are ambush hunters, have slow metabolisms and eat much less frequently compared to warm-blooded animals. Not to mention most crocodiles and their alligator relatives are nocturnal, prowling the murky swamps and rivers at night.

Since most hunting behavior is observed by sheer happenstance, researchers from the University of Tennessee cleverly turned to Facebook and other social media sites to gather eyewitness accounts rom amateur naturalists, crocodile researchers and nonscientists working with crocodiles. They also used scientific diaries and 3,000 hours of their own personal observations.

Interestingly, researchers discovered that like their advanced parental care and complex communication, crocodile hunting, too, is sophisticated.

Crocodiles and alligators demonstrated coordination and collaboration during their hunts, proving that teamwork is better than going it alone. For example, crocodiles would swim in a circle around a shoal of fish, making the circle tighter until the fish were forced into a small "bait ball." Then, one at a time the crocodiles would take turns cutting across the center of the circle, snatching their prey. In addition, these reptiles would at times utilize their different sizes to their advantage, where larger alligators would drive fish out of deep lake waters into the shallow end where smaller, more agile crocodiles would be waiting.

"These observations indicate that crocodilians might belong to a very select club of hunters - just 20 or so species of animals, including humans - capable of coordinating their actions in sophisticated ways and assuming different roles according to each individual's abilities. In fact, they might be second only to humans in their hunting prowess," researcher Vladimir Dinets said in a statement.

The findings were published in the journal Ethology Ecology & Evolution.