Why giant carnivorous crocodiles are drawn to the sound of babies crying: study

Crocodiles are drawn to the sounds of crying babies, new research suggests.

Nile crocodiles were found to react to the cries of baby bonobos, chimpanzees, and humans – and they appear to be able to detect the degree of distress, research published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the Royal Society’s main biological research journal, found.

Researchers played audio recordings of infants crying to the carnivorous crocodiles and discovered they were drawn to those in the most distress.

The reactions could be explained as predatory by the giant reptiles, but it may also suggest a maternal instinct in female crocodiles, the researchers said.

Around 300 Nile crocodiles at CrocoParc in Agadir, Morocco, were played the sounds of cries on loudspeakers, per The Independent, with many of the crocodiles responding quickly.

The higher the infant’s distress level, the more 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.”