Crocodiles can climb straight up trees

[Eugene]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Crocodiles can climb straight up trees

By Amy Hubbard
February 12, 2014, 8:00 a.m.

Crocodiles and alligators can -- and do -- climb trees.

"Climbing behavior is common among crocodilians," reads a new study in Herpetology Notes.

The study includes a picture of a Mississippi gator perched on the branch of a tree. Is that a smile on its face? And there's this tidbit: "One adult dwarf crocodile escaped from its enclosure at the Bristol Zoo ... by climbing up a tree growing at an angle and then over the barrier."

The report comes from researchers at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville's department of psychology. They found five crocodilian species on three continents (Australia, Africa and North America) able to climb trees. And the animals don't just conquer trees that are bent. Some can make a vertical climb, the researchers assert, "as long as footholds are available."

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/nation/shareitnow/la-sh-crocodiles-climb-trees-20140212,0,5784540.story

[Scuba]

1. So much for "Escape Plan A".

[awoke_in_2003]

6. No shit...

that was my first thought, too.

[CFLDem]

2. Awesome!

I wish there were more tree gators by me.

[gordianot]

3. Wow impressive!

I always heard a Cottonmouth Water Moccasin climbs trees and will drop from branches into a canoe floating down the river. I did not believe it and heard from a Conservation Naturalist it was a myth. I saw it happen with my own eyes. What that snake wanted in that canoe is beyond me other than watching the occupants bail out after the snake made it clear he/she had fangs and a white mouth.

[ladjf]

4. I have personally seen a cotton mouthed moccasin climb up a leaning tree trunk on the underside of

trunk. I have never seen a cotton mouth in a river but many in swampy lakes and sloughs.

[gordianot]

8. Even though the Naturalist denied that I guess we know better.

[ladjf]

9. Once while fishing, I saw a water snake crawl into a low overhanging bush with a small fish in

his mouth. The fish was still showing signs of life, but after a few minutes, it died and the snake ate it.

Regarding the snake that climbed the tree: 1. it was definitely a cotton mouth and 2. it swam up toward the leaning tree trunk and first raised raised about 8 inches of his body out of the water moved toward the tree trunk. I was sitting close by to the side so I could see the whole process. Then after he planted the uplifted part of his body up against the bark, he just went straight up the trunk for a couple of feet and then crossed over to the topside and stopped.

On another day, at the same location, a large cotton mouth was hanging around my fish stringer so I pulled the fish up onto the bank about five feet from the water, I backed off and waited to see what the snake was going to to. He came out of the water and heading toward the fish at which point I started throwing things at him. He retreated back into the water but stayed near the edge watching me.
I threw some chunks of wood at him. He stood his ground and struck at the wood. Finally he swam off.

[CrispyQ]

15. Since you seem to be familiar with water & fish,

Years ago I saw something I've never seen before & have always wondered what caused it. There is a recreational trail that circles an irrigation lake near my house. The trail is just over a mile long. The city stocks the lake with fish eggs in the spring & people are allowed to fish.

One day, it was early summer & early in the morning, six or six thirty, the entire shore of the lake was teaming with fish. They were alive & looked fine, swimming around like crazy, but I've never seen anything like it. There weren't a lot of folks out at that time, but those that were, were just like me, agape at the site of all the fish by the shore.

Any ideas? My only thought is that maybe the city stocked it with live fish instead of eggs that year & they had just been released? It was a fascinating sight.

[ladjf]

16. Sorry, I don't have a theory about the situation you described.

In the Spring, bream and bass bed and spawn in shallow water near the shore but I think you would have recognized that by the presences of the circular egg nests and the beds wouldn't have completely followed the shore all the way around.

[CrispyQ]

17. Thought I'd run it past you.

[ladjf]

10. The snake was either sunning himself or sleeping.

When he saw the canoe, he was trying to get back into the water and fell into the boat. The story failed to include that the
snake immediately jumped out of canoe. I once had the same experience. We all jumped out to escape from the snake,but ,the snake also jumped out so we were all in the water together.

Common water snakes are pretty timid. However, large cottonmouths have a very aggressive personality and might come toward you on purpose.

[gordianot]

11. I heard the story was common on the upper Jacks Fork in Missouri.

My first thought it was ridiculous. Why would a snake drop in a canoe? As we put in the river the floaters in the other canoe warned watch out for Cottonmouths dropping in your canoe. Yeah right about 30 minutes in the float they got it. It made me a believer. The Naturalist who told me that snakes Cottonmouths do not drop in canoes had a degree in Herpetology and Botany. I wonder if Cottonmouths are territorial and aggressive? I have no desire to float the upper Jacks Fork. Most water snakes seem to be shy not Cottonmouths.

The same Naturalist also told me that Black Panthers (Mountain Lions?) do not exist after I saw one 30 years ago up close. I only saw them one time my son has seen them twice about 7 years ago on our Ozark farm close to were I saw one years ago. These cats do not seem to be aggressive.

I can only imagine a gator dropping from a tree.

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

12. My great uncle went fishing with a friend on a stocked tank

There was a small island with an old tree that the snakes used. They got too close and one fell into the boat. The friend then shot at it with a shotgun. The snake swam off, the boat didn't fare so well.

They had to abandon the boat where it sank. It would become visible whenever the tank water level dropped during dry spells.

My great uncle never went fishing with the guy ever again.

[gordianot]

13. I get along with Copperheads, even Rattle Snakes, and all reptiles. Cottonmouths I take measures.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Uh, UT Knoxville Department of Psychology ????

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Yep - lead author Vladimir Dinets

Turns out the crocodile can be a shrewd hunter himself. A University of Tennessee, Knoxville, researcher has found that some crocodiles use lures to hunt their prey.

Vladimir Dinets, a research assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, is the first to observe two crocodilian species -- muggers and American alligators -- using twigs and sticks to lure birds, particularly during nest-building time.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131204182433.htm

http://dinets.info/

[eppur_se_muova]

18. Ahhhh ... I assumed that *Human* psychology was implied ... apparently not.

I know rats, dogs, cats, chimps are all used in psychological studies but I'm suprised this isn't being done from within the Dept. of Biology. Curious.

[CrispyQ]

14. The croc in the tree does look quite pleased.

[eppur_se_muova]

19. There's a large varanid lizard that's sometimes known as a "tree crocodile" ...

but it's only about 8 feet long.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanus_salvadorii

ETA: Didn't read the whole paper, but it seems these are all subadults, no more than about 3' long, which suddenly makes it much less surprising.