Short snout crocodiles kill homosexuals to eat meat

The small crocodile died when it fell into the larger copper belly in the Texas coastal swamp.

Photographer Brad Streets caught a cannibal crocodile in Brazos Bend Park in Needville, Texas, USA, Live Science reported on August 23. At first, Brad's attention focused on the gut floating on the water near the large crocodile. About an hour later, Brad took a closer look and noticed that the crocodile was pinching the much smaller type of copper in his mouth.

Small crocodiles are not meals that are mouthful, but big hungry crocodiles still chew on their prey. The body and legs of the small crocodile disappear into the animal's throat. In the final photo, only the small crocodile's tail is sticking out, hanging from the jaws of the big crocodile.

The phenomenon of cannibalism is quite common in short snout crocodiles.(Photo: Brad Streets).

The American short snout crocodile (Alligator mississippiensis) lives a lot in Texas, along the Gulf of Mexico, where they reside in coastal marshes and river systems, according to the Texas Wildlife and Parks Authority (TPW). . It is estimated that 250 at least 1.8 meters of alligators live in Brazos Bend Park and some are 4.9 meters long. Crocodiles living in parks can appear anywhere with water. They are not picky eaters and will swallow anything edible that they find underwater or near shore.

Many crocodile short snout even eat shark meat, according to a study published in September 2017 in Southeastern Naturalist magazine. But the common food of crocodiles is fish, turtles, snakes, birds and mammals like rabbits, wild boars, cat bears and deer.

In fact, cannibalistic crocodile phenomenon is not unusual, according to James Nifong, a biologist at the US Army's Center for Technical Research and Development."Larger males have opportunistic predatory behavior. They see smaller crocodiles and consider it a convenient fast meal. This always happens in the big adult males that have established territory. During the mating season, when weaker males appear, they fight, and the victors eat the losers , " Nifong said.

The small prey is swallowed up, but digesting large animals takes time, and alligators use their powerful jaws to crush their bones and shred their prey into mouthfuls that are easier to eat, Jonathan Warner, TPW's crocodile program director, said. For really big meals, alligators can hide their prey in the cave close to the edge of the water so that the soft body allows them to bite more easily, then come back and finish the meal.

"Time depends on the size of the prey, the temperature of the water and how hungry they are," Warner said. With a meal of the size of a young crocodile in the picture, digestion time is two weeks. But that doesn't mean big crocodiles will stop hunting.