Hey Mom - I Think I Am Ready For The World

A new research study conducted by French Scientists, Amelie Vergne and Nicholas Mathevon indicates that baby crocodiles communicate with each other and their mothers just before they are getting ready to hatch.

The baby crocs make a sound like 'umph umph', which signals to their mom and siblings that they are ready to face the big world!

The two scientists tested their theory with ten crocodiles, by playing back the 'umph umph' sounds as well as other random sounds.

Every time they played the baby sound, the crocodiles would run and start to dig the areas where the eggs had been buried - even though there were no eggs there.(zoo officials remove eggs as soon as they are laid). When the scientists played the random sounds, the crocodiles did not react at all.

Amelie and Nicolas believe that this is a defense mechanism that crocodiles have developed, since in the wild, the babies get eaten as soon as they are born. By sounding, what the scientists believe is the hatching signal, all the eggs try to hatch at the same time and the mother rushes over to protect them, increasing their chances of survival. How fascinating!

Sources:DailyMail.co.Uk., scientificblogging.com