Crocodiles think surfing waves, playing ball and going on piggyback rides are fun, too, according to Prof Vladimir Dinets from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
A male crocodile gives a piggyback ride to his lifelong female partner. Image credit: Vladimir Dinets.
Prof Dinets has studied crocodiles for ten years. While doing so, he has observed the animals engaging in play-like behavior.
To get more data, he conducted an informal survey of crocodilian-themed groups on social media and various conferences.
The results show that crocodilians engage in all three main types of play distinguished by behavior specialists: locomotor play, play with objects and social play. Play with objects is reported most often.
Crocodiles have been spotted playing with wooden balls, noisy ceramic bits, streams of water, their prey and debris floating in the water.
Cases of locomotor play include young alligators repeatedly sliding down slopes, crocodiles surfing ocean waves and caimans riding currents of water in their pools.
Observed cases of social play include baby alligators riding on their older friends’ backs, baby caimans playfully courting each other and a male crocodile giving his lifetime mate rides on his back.
Crocodiles have also been seen playing with other animals.
Prof Dinets observed a juvenile alligator playing with a river otter.
In rare cases, individual crocodiles have been known to bond so strongly with people that they become playmates for years.
For example, a man who rescued a crocodile that had been shot in the head became close friends with the animal. They happily played every day until the crocodile’s death 20 years later.
“The croc would swim with his human friend, try to startle him by suddenly pretending to attack him or by sneaking up on him from behind, and accept being caressed, hugged, rotated in the water and kissed on the snout,” said Prof Dinets, who reported his findings in the journal Animal Behavior and Cognition.
In his previous research, Prof Dinets discovered that crocodiles are able to climb trees, hunt in groups and use lures such as sticks to hunt prey.
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Dinets, V. 2015. Play behavior in crocodilians. Animal Behavior and Cognition 2 (1), 49-55; doi: 10.12966/abc.02.04.2015
