In a remarkable act of interspecies support, a group of crocodiles in India appeared to guide a stray dog to safety after it fell into a river infested with the predators.
The incident was observed by scientists who were studying the behaviour of mugger crocodiles in the Savitri River in Maharashtra, India.
The crocodiles could have easily devoured the dog, yet none of them attacked. Instead, they seemed to be escorting it to safety.
The scientists’ observations were published in the journal Threatened Taxa.
In the paper, they described how the dog was being chased by a pack of feral dogs when it jumped into the river.
The crocodiles immediately surrounded the dog, but instead of attacking, they began to nudge it towards the riverbank.
‘These crocodiles were actually touching the dog with their snout’ the researchers reported in the study, writing that the crocodiles ‘seemingly nudged and escorted [the dog] to safety.’
This unusual behaviour has baffled scientists who have come up with possible theories to explain it.
One possibility is that the crocodiles were simply not hungry at the time. Another is that they were wary of the scientists and did not want to attack the dog in front of them.
Mugger crocodiles, although credited with numerous deaths, aren’t as dangerous as many other species that grow as large or hunt more aggressively.
Researchers proposed that the mugger crocodile’s behaviour in guiding the dog to safety could be a case of cross-species ’emotional empathy’.
There is evidence that some animals may be capable of cross-species emotional empathy. For example, one study found that chimpanzees were more likely to help a human who had previously been kind to them.
They explained that crocodiles are the ‘most cognitively complex’ of reptiles.
Crocodiles have been observed to display a range behaviours including hunting, spatial orientation, and social interactions, including communication in several modes.
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