Speaking of Play

Who would have guessed? Apparently crocodiles play too. In rare cases they even bond and play with humans:

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.

In this case the human had rescued the crocodile after it had been shot in the head. They played together every day until the crocodile died 20 years later. Crocodiles have also been observed playing with objects, surfing, giving one another piggyback rides, etc. Yay, crocodiles!


 

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10 Responses to Speaking of Play

  1. Cathy in NZ says:

    nope, I’m am going to say “never” will be seen snuggling with a crocodile!

  2. tammy j says:

    well… though i agree with cathy from the ‘personal’ standpoint! ….
    i just love that.
    i’m thinking that we haven’t got a CLUE about how animals really feel about life.
    just because they don’t speak our language. we seem to think or have throughout the past history anyway… that they don’t relate or have feelings… how WRONG!
    jacque cousteau said as much. he even PETTED a huge eel once.
    and look at the DOG. and the ELEPHANT! oh. THIS subject i am passionate about!
    i remember as a child seeing a walt disney documentary film about otters playing in the snow. they were like children. they would climb up the hill then slide down… then go back up and slide down! just for the fun of it!!!
    WONDERFUL post monk!!!

    • Jean says:

      Oops! I thought I already answered this. The article mentioed a crocodile that played with otters, and apparently baby crocs love to slide, too. One of my favorite animal-playing scenes was a polar bear playing with sled dogs. This isn’t the one I was thinking of, but I love it too:

  3. Rummuser says:

    There was once a millionaire who collected a large amount of alligators as pets. One day when he held a party he came up with a proposition. He said if anyone could swim across the alligator infested pool and emerge unharmed he would pay them $1 million or give them his daughter, a supermodel.
    Immediately after he finished saying this he heard a splash and the entire crowd watched and cheered as the young man swam quickly across the pool, and emerged unharmed.
    The millionaire was amazed but said that he would hold up his end of the bargain.
    “Well”, he said,”do you want the $1 million or my daughter? The young man answered, “Sir, I don’t want your money or your daughter, I just want to know who the hell pushed me into that pool.”

  4. Ursula says:

    In line with Tammy: Elephants never forget. May everyone remember that. It’s their USP (unique selling point) other than the hooves so big they’ll squash.

    My dear Jean, I think the crucial difference between a crocodile and yours: Yours was shot in the head. Strange things happen to anyone (human or animal, let’s leave flowers out of it) when head injury is obtained. As son of a friend of mine once told me on opening the door to me: “Stand by to be shocked. My mother isn’t the same any more.” He was right. She wasn’t. Her accident (hitting her head on black ice) came instantly on the heel of her displaying Schadenfreude – that most unfortunate of human (e)motions. Second only to jealousy. I don’t believe in divine justice. Neither do I feel sorry for her.

    Crocodile? My foot. Play with your own sort.

    U

    • Jean says:

      You’re no doubt right about the crocodile. The main thing is he and the human had 20 years of playing together, so the bullet wasn’t all bad.

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