We don’t know why the black one we couldn’t find any significant weight or temperature differences it was just something about the black block. Every day I’d put it back, change its position in the exhibit and the next day it’d be in the pool again. And every morning the black block would be in the pool. So I put out three cement blocks: one white, one gray, and one black for them to use as stations. That would allow us to get better looks at them for vet care, and potentially train them for blood draws and do more interesting research-such as testing for whether or not they can see color. I was trying to look at different ways to train the crocodiles I wanted to train them to go to an individual station-a specific spot that they know is “theirs” where they stand when cued. One of your papers documented play behavior in the Cuban crocodile. It is often referred to as an appeasement behavior. This is a typical response of a smaller crocodilian to a larger individual. When she approaches our younger female Blanche, Blanche lifts her snout. Our oldest crocodile is Dorothy, and while she seems laid back, she is definitely dominant. In crocodiles, especially, dominance is determined by size, and that plays a huge role in their behavior. It’s not personality it has to do with dominance. It’s important to watch them continuously, and for as long as possible to capture the entire interaction What did you find determines differences in behavior in Cuban crocs? Crocodilians are behaviorally complex and their interactions are long and drawn out. Reptiles have different communication channels than humans do, so it can be hard for us to study them-we want to interpret their behavior like we would human behavior-but make sure we didn’t miss any signals. We got some really cool and interesting results. We had an intern come and watch them all day for all of the breeding and nesting season. We could see some differences-two of the females built mound nests, one digs a hole nest and developmental rates within the eggs varied-so we wanted to see if there was something going on socially or dominance-wise to dictate those differences. I was curious to see if I could use their behavior to predict their reproductive output. How did your research on the Cuban crocodiles start? Ours is some of the very first social research on Cuban crocs. Nine species out of the 23 have had at least some research on some kind of social behavior, but there’s a lot still to learn. There is some documentation of courtship behavior in the wild, and there’s been extensive research done on American alligators. Primarily on species like American crocs, saltwater crocs and American alligators.
They’re hard to study in the wild, so a lot of behavioral research on alligators and crocodilians has been in human care. Alligators and crocodiles aren’t animals that people typically think of as having much of a social life. This research has recently been published in recent scientific papers, including one this year in the Herpetological Review. And, it's a species on which very little social and behavioral research has been done.Īugustine’s research began as a way to track the reproductive cycles of the Zoo’s three female Cuban crocodiles, but has since expanded to include social interactions, dominance behavior and even play behavior. The Zoo is fortunate to have several species of crocodilians, including the Cuban crocodile-a critically endangered species native (as its name suggests) solely to Cuba. A majority of that research, though, has focused on only a handful of the 23 existing species of crocodilians: predominantly the American alligator, American crocodile and the saltwater crocodile. Consequently, much of what scientists know about crocodilian behavior and biology comes form animals in human care. Research on crocodiles and alligators in the wild is often difficult and dangerous.
Keepers at the Reptile Discovery Center, including animal keeper Lauren Augustine, are upholding that proud tradition with ground-breaking research on social behavior, reproduction and play in a species not typically associated with any of those words: a crocodile. The Smithsonian's National Zoo is well known for advancing conservation science.
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