‘Love language’ of crocodiles uncovered in research at Australia Zoo

A research project at Australia Zoo has revealed what gets crocodiles in the mood for mating, including the peculiar act females “just love”. Listen to the audio.

A University of the Sunshine Coast research project conducted at Australia Zoo has revealed what gets crocodiles in the mood for mating.

The research project has uncovered that its blowing bubbles and hissing that gets the ladies going for intimacy.

Headed by research supervisor and UniSC ecologist, Dr Ross Dwyer, and honours student Sonnie Flores, the project captured the courtship behaviour through audio and video recording equipment installed in the saltwater crocodile enclosures at the world famous zoo at Beerwah.

A saltwater crocodile in an enclosure at Australia Zoo.

“Narial geysering, narial hissing, bubble-blowing, these are some of the things males primarily do to females and the females just love it,” Ms Flores said.

“There’s a lot of courtship noises, and a lot of the sounds they make are actually in mixed context.

“So they might make it in an aggressive way or in a courtship way.”

Audio sensors revealed that a series of growls and roars can also get the ladies in the mood, with the collection of noises forming part of a research project to create a crocodile dictionary to better understand how the apex predators communicate.

Australia Zoo crocodile sounds research with honours student Sonnie Flores (right).

Flores hopes to capture a wide range of sounds for the audio collection.

“Crocodilians are considered the most vocal reptile,” she added.

“We’re hoping to collect some more roars, growls, head slaps and it would be really great to get some low frequency sounds from the crocodiles.

“It’s something we don’t have a lot of research on.”

Audio and video equipment being installed in a saltwater crocodile enclosure at Australia Zoo.

Crocodile research team leader at Australia Zoo Toby Millyard said the university-led project furthered Steve Irwin’s commitment to breaking down the stigma surrounding the reptiles.

“People are never going to love an animal they don’t understand,” Millyard said.

“So learning more about how they live, act and interact is what we’re all about.

“Particularly with crocodiles, they were Steve’s greatest love, anything that furthers our knowledge of them, we’re all for.”

Originally published as ‘Love language’ of crocodiles uncovered in research at Australia Zoo