New recent studies from the University of Tennessee reveal sophisticated behaviors of crocodiles as they work together as a team to hunt their prey.

Vladimir Dinets, a research assistant professor from the University's Department of Psychology, took advantage of Facebook and other social media sites to obtain eye witness accounts from both specialists and non-specialists working with crocodiles.

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Crocodiles and alligators are known as ambush predators that wait for their prey to come close and attack them by surprise. This very fact makes it difficult for researchers to study the entirety of their behaviors.

In addition to social media sites, Vladimir Dinets also looked into diaries of scientists from the 19^th century up to the present time and conducted three thousand hours of observations himself.

He came up with a conclusion that similarities between these accounts do exist. The striking similarity is that crocodiles work together as a team to attack their prey.

"Despite having been made independently by different people on different continents, these records showed striking similarities," Dinets said.

"This suggests that the observed phenomena are real, rather than just tall tales or misinterpretation."

The crocodiles were observed to swim in a circle around a group of fish, while gradually tightening the circle. The other crocodiles would then cross in the middle of the circle and snatch the fish one by one.

Dinets said animals may play different roles according to their different sizes. For example, a large alligator may force a fish from the deepest part of a lake into a shallow area where the smaller alligators position themselves to obstruct its escape.

The positioning of the crocodiles suggests that they were 'aware' of each other's actions.

Dinets said, "All these observations indicate that crocodilians might belong to a very select club of hunters among 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,"

More observations are needed to further understand the capabilities of these animals working together, Dinets added.

TagsUniversity of Tennessee, Vladimir Dinets, Crocodiles, Alligators