Crocodile Hatchlings Ride in Their Mother’s Mouth to Safety

Crocodiles are interesting creatures. They are strong and tough on the outside and can kill with one crunch of their massive jaws. Yet, when it comes to females and their interaction with their hatchlings, crocodiles have maternal instincts that more closely resemble those of birds than those of other reptiles.

But before this connection between the babies and their mother can be made, the baby crocodiles need to hatch. Buried beneath the earth, baby crocodiles must call out to their mother to survive. It is a fascinating process to watch crocodiles hatch, but one that can take hours upon hours to complete, during which both the hatchlings and mother are at their most vulnerable.

Crocodiles Are Born In A Clutch

When crocodile eggs are laid, they are called a clutch. The majority of crocodiles lay approximately 60 to 80 eggs at one time, with some species laying as few as seven and some as many as 100 eggs. Crocodiles lay such a large number of eggs because many hatchlings will not survive their first year of life. The incubation period lasts from 60 to 100 days. During this time, the mother is very protective of her nest, with most mothers not eating during the incubation period to protect the eggs. Any predator that attempts to take an egg will be chased away, injured, or eaten.

During the incubation period, the temperature determines whether the hatchlings are male or female.

When it is time to hatch, the crocodile babies will let their mother know, and she will come to assist.

Crocodile Babies Signal They Are Ready To Hatch

Crocodile babies alert their mother that they are ready to hatch by making a chirping noise. When this happens, the mother will begin to dig up the eggs as her incubation has caused the earth over the eggs to be too compact for the babies to dig their way out. The chirping also alerts the other baby crocodiles that are preparing to hatch that the process is beginning.

To assist in hatching, baby crocodiles have an egg tooth that is attached to the end of their snout. They use this tooth to help break through both the brittle outer and leathery inner portions of the egg to hatch. The mother will also help the soon-to-be hatchlings by gently rolling the eggs around in her mouth. The entire process, according to Gatorland VLOGS, will take a couple of hours to all night to complete.

Once the eggs have hatched, the hatchlings are then given a ride in their mother’s mouth to the water, according to Frank Mazzotti, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Florida. The mother does this because the water is considered a safer place for the hatchlings than on land.

“This is a group of species that has the most powerful bite in the animal world,” Mazzotti explains to Discover Magazine, “and yet they can pick up an egg and roll it in their mouth gently enough to crack it so that a hatchling can emerge and swim away.”

This is just some of the evidence of the strong maternal instinct in crocodiles, which many people are surprised to learn exists.

Crocodile Hatchlings Get A Mother’s TLC

Many crocodile species do not immediately send their hatchlings off into the wild to fend for themselves. Instead, after laying her eggs in an area with plentiful food for both herself and her babies, the mother crocodile will tend to her hatchlings for weeks or even months after they are born.

By staying with the hatchlings, the mother crocodile can help her babies get the best possible start in life. This is necessary given that there is such a high mortality rate for crocodile babies. Of the eggs that are laid, only 25% hatch. Of those, only 54% survive the first year of life. Unfortunately, of that 54%, only about 1% are believed to reach maturity and have hatchlings of their own. During the time the hatchlings spend with their mother, they learn how to hunt insects, gradually working their way up to larger prey such as amphibians and small fish, before eventually becoming large enough to hunt bigger aquatic creatures and land mammals.

It is easy to believe that crocodiles of any species are harsh and heartless creatures. However, they are descendants of the same group of ancient reptiles that birds are associated with. Consequently, crocodiles provide some tender care to their hatchlings, even if only for a short period, to give the young crocodiles the best possible start in life.