Biologists have known that shortly before hatching, crocodiles make noises within their eggs.
A new study, which involved playbacks of the pre-hatching calls, reveals these calls from the egg tell siblings it’s time to hatch and tell moms it’s time to uncover the nest.
Researchers Amélie Vergne and Nicolas Mathevon of the Jean Monnet University in France monitored Nile crocodile eggs that were due to hatch within 10 days.
The eggs were placed into one of three groups, for which the researchers either played recordings of pre-hatching calls, recordings of noise (other than the calls), or no sound.
The group of eggs that got a dose of real crocodile calls responded and moved, as the about finger-sized babies jostled about, more often than the “noise” eggs.
The eggs incubated in silence showed no movement.
All four of the individuals that successfully hatched in the crocodile-call group did so during or within 10 minutes of the playbacks.
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