How Three Crocodiles Saved the Life of a Young Dog
“We propose this to be a case of sentient behaviour of the mugger resulting in cross-species ‘emotional empathy’, which is not a very extensively investigated behaviour.”(Journal of Threatened Taxa, reported in onlygoodnewsdaily.com)
Crocodiles have a reputation of being a dangerous and cunning animal. We have an idiom about their treachery- “to shed crocodile tears.”
A young dog, chased by a pack of feral dogs, desperately jumped into the shallow Savitri river in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It did not notice three mugger crocodiles that were swimming close by.
Instead of attacking the dog, the three crocodiles used their snouts to nudge the dog to a safe riverbank. The dog jumped off and ran away safely.
The empathy theory seems credible because the crocodiles deliberately pushed the dog to safety, overcoming their predatory instinct.
