N.Wells
Posts: 1836
Joined: Oct. 2005
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| Quote (GaryGaulin @ Feb. 27 2016,21:52) | I put the information to cover "motherly" that was ready to go into the text of the theory. The "fatherly" contribution is (so far) at least learning not to try eating their food or else mom gets angry, and normally does not eat the babies. That part though is under construction. Which left this:
| Quote | | Motherly alligators and crocodiles gently carry their well guarded hatchlings to the water. If the babies are scared then they will call and she will be quick to come to their aid and let them ride on her head and body, as they learn what they need to know to succeed in life. |
It was possible to shorten the two sentences in a way that helped remove somewhat anecdotal type statements. Word flow better goes with the rest of the theory. And the first sentence leaves off with hatchlings being carried to the water, where they don't all have to rush out at once. At that moment in their life her mouth is their safety. If at first the water scares them then they can without being eaten scurry right back in. I can still include that part. Going without it left a place it belongs but is now no longer there. The sentence it's in needed more detail to indicate exactly when the (either way) cute moment occurs. |
You still have a high content of imaginary nonsense there.
The fathers are not "learning not to eat the infants' food". Unlike most birds, parent crocodilians do not feed their young*, so the adults, being big, are eating large prey that the babies cannot obtain, so they are not competing with the young for food. (*The mothers alert their babies to the presence of food, but, as far as I know, do not catch food for them or rip animals up for them.) Again, document your claims, and present arguments that are logical and which are supported by evidence.
Your text implies that mothers let babies ride on them as a result of the babies being scared are calling, which is wrong. Babies clamber on mothers during quiet times - at times of danger mothers charge to the rescue and attack the threat.
You are implying that crocodilian babies are learning from their mother. This would seem reasonable, except that as researchers learn more about crocodilians, it is becoming clear that more and more of crocodilian behavior is turning out to be instinctive, rather than learned, so crocodilian childhood is looking to be a lot more about growing bigger than growing smarter, which means that the picture you are painting of crocodilian life remains misleading.
"If at first the water scares them then they can without being eaten scurry right back in. I can still include that part." Well, no. You still haven't shown that the infants "scurry back in". A) The mother picks them up for the trip, rather than they climb in, and B) for all but the last baby out of ten to fifty, the mother will have left to return to the nest in order to collect another baby (the mothers seem to carry their babies individually or, less commonly, in twos, not as a group). Safety involves being near the mother (so that the mother can attack the threat), not being on the mother or in her mouth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v....QQ9_ZmI
"in a way that helped remove somewhat anecdotal type statements". That is truly pitiful attempt at damage control.
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