Friday Roundup: Psychic Crocodiles and Making Way for Tigers

Can Crocodiles Predict Earthquakes? Over at the Croc Blog, Adam Britton takes on a recent report suggesting that a captive (actually the largest crocodile in captivity) crocodile in the Philippines may have predicted an earthquake seconds before it occurred. Crocodilians are very good at detecting subtle and low frequency vibrations. This is because they use these vibrations to communicate and detect prey. So, although this crocodile may have reacted to some vibrations just prior to an earthquake, it's a stretch to say that there were any predictions involved.

Living Alongside Wild...Tigers: There have been a lot of reports about a recent scientific article demonstrating that people and tigers and India have worked out a clever way of sharing the same space.  People don't want to run into potentially dangerous felines when they're walking to work and tigers don't want to encounter anybody that could be a potential poacher. So, when they need to use the same paths, they do it at different times of the day.

Amazing Wildlife Photography: This is a must-see, a slide-show (with narration) of some incredible wildlife shots submitted to this year's Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition. Which pictures stood out to you?

Conservation on the Cayman Islands: A great summary of the conservation threats and hopes facing a handful of species found only on these small Caribbean islands.

Indigo Snake Conservation in Alabama: In his blog, Life is Short but Snakes Are Long, Andrew Durso provides a great summary of the recent research surrounding the reintroduction of the Indigo Snake in Conecuh National Forest.

I Hear You: An columnist for the Henderson State University (Arkansas) newspaper vents about a constant parade of dead rattlesnake pictures and outlandish reptile myths.


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Want to Learn More?

Carter NH, Shrestha BK, Karki JB, Pradhan NM, & Liu J (2012). Coexistence between wildlife and humans at fine spatial scales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109 (38), 15360-5 PMID: 22949642