Study: Crocodiles are attracted to baby cries of fear

Crocodiles detect fear in the cries of human babies. The more desperate the screams, the more the crocodiles are attracted, according to a study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

At Morocco’s Agadir Zoo, the researchers from Lyon played crying sounds of human babies, young bonobos and chimpanzees for the Nile crocodile study and observed their movements in the crocodile aquarium.

Originally, the researchers wanted to investigate the universality of stress characteristics in animal sounds. However, they found that some acoustic parameters were more relevant to crocodiles than to humans: “Crocodiles orient their cries according to the criteria of ‘roughness’ and ‘chaos’,” while humans respond to pitch, the study co-author explained. . the AFP bioacousticist Nicolas Grimault.

According to the researcher, the behavior can be explained by the fact that crocodiles, as cold-blooded animals, are very careful with their movements. For example, they mainly respond to possible prey animals that already sound weakened. “The more distressed an animal is, the easier prey it is,” Grimault explained. (sda/afp)