kaijutegu

@milksolid​ I am DELIGHTED that you said this because it was the perfect excuse to talk about how much crocodilians love to play. As a whole, the group has an amazing sense of play, and what’s more, their play is even sometimes social, which isn’t common in reptiles at all! Crocodilians will give each other rides for no apparent reason. This is observed in creche-mates (hatchlings around the same size, not always from the same parents) as well as in adults! Rides can be part of courtship but are also observed outside of courtship behavior. Sometimes it’s just fun to get a ride from your buddy.

(Social play isn’t limited to crocodilians- turtles will also play with each other, and so will some species of juvenile lizards. In The Secret Social Lives of Reptiles, the authors explain that social play might be important in territorial species that hatch communally because it lets them explore boundaries and social behavior.)

Crocodilians are also known for how much they enjoy novel objects. In Vladimir Dinets 2015 study on play behavior in crocodilians, he noted that they like to play with streams of water and flowers that fall into the water they’re swimming in. They especially love pink flowers and will ignore other floating objects to specifically find the pink ones and push them around or carry them on their noses.

Locomotor play is also seen in crocodilians, which is really neat because as ectotherms (cold-blooded animals), they typically conserve their energy for moving in bursts when capturing prey. But sometimes they’ll invest energy in movement that just seems to be for funsies- especially if they have the option to slide down a slope. Sliding has been seen in alligators and crocodiles, and in captive and wild animals. That one viral video of the Nile crocodile sliding down a slope? That’s play! He did that because it was fun!

Crocodilians often have a bad reputation- people think they’re mean, or that they’re mindless killing machines. But that’s not actually true! Yes, they are predators who deserve respect. No, they are not domesticated animals- you can’t treat them like dogs, that’s how your hand bitten off. No, you should not have one as a pet. But they are incredibly complex and have a really neat social intelligence that we’re only just now beginning to really understand. They play! They have paternal AND maternal investment! They have some really interesting communication! And yes, sometimes they just like to go down a slide.

If you want to know more about how much fun crocodilians have, in addition to the sources I linked, I highly recommend the book Dragon Songs by Vladimir Dinets. It’s an incredible look at the social customs of the world’s crocodilians– the guy went everywhere to study as many species as possible. Gordon Burghardt’s stuff in general is also good if you want to know more about the importance of play in animals!

It’s so fascinating to me that we’ve only been breeding Komodo dragons in captivity for thirty years. In that time, our understanding of them has actually really revolutionized the way we understand the social lives and behaviors of lizards in general, and it’s mostly thanks to this lady right here, who was born 30 years ago on September 13, 1992.

Kraken was the first Komodo to be bred in captivity. She hatched out at GMU, but was raised at the National Zoo. Her parents were wild-caught dragons- there’s still WC dragons in the AZA today- and this one specific individual probably did more to revolutionize lizard care in professional settings than any other individual lizard throughout zoo history.

Until Kraken, social enrichment wasn’t a thing people thought about. It wasn’t something anybody felt was necessary for lizards, because they were just... lizards. Sure, some keepers would play with their favorites, but it wasn’t until the National Zoo started documenting what she was doing that anybody realized how much Komodo dragons like to play with us too.

Kraken’s not in that video, but she’s the one who inspired all of the social studies that have been done on captive Komodo dragons. When she was at the National Zoo, her keepers  started getting curious when, for no apparent reason, she kept gingerly stealing things from peoples’ pockets and tugging on their shoelaces. So they started giving her stuff- Frisbees, blankets, soda cans, anything she showed an interest in.

She played with them, just like a mammal might. The way play behavior is described in psychology is a given activity that’s voluntary, repeated, and conducted under “relatively benign” circumstances. Keeper staff found that her conduct during the study met all of these criteria. “Kraken,” they wrote, had clearly demonstrated “play-like behavior with objects and even with humans (tug-of-war).” Moreover, she “could discriminate between prey and nonprey” while showing “varying responses” with different items (rubber rings, shoes, etc.). (There’s an excellent book on Komodo dragons that has an entire chapter devoted to her.)

Kraken died several years ago, but her legacy continues today. There’s several of her descendants still in the AZA, and the intelligence and social needs she demonstrated led to the improvement of life for these guys- and other lizards. The Komodo dragon program has been an eye opener, not just for reptile conservation, but for understanding reptile intelligence and how this incredible clade of animals functions.

90% TONGUE BY VOLUME

AHHH he's so cute! Temeraire is a fine name- I had a crestie named Iskierka. One of my favorite book series, that.

TINY BLEP what a good cat!

I submit for your viewing pleasure, my two awful cats that I love as children

You saw "awful" but at least ONE of those cats has (probably) not committed any crimes!

now THIS is the fine content i want to see in my inbox! Shrimp!

>goes to take a nap >comes back hours later to find out i’m Owl’s bad guy of the moment

aw jeez i should probably say something huh

Tl;dr: Stop telling me what owlvid is up to, I really don’t care. I cared about Owl’s wellbeing at the beginning, but hey, they don’t want that and so I’m done caring, so please stop putting screenshots of their posts about me in my inbox.

Owl, I know you’re reading this. Let me make some things abundantly clear: I’m not mad at you for some take you have or don’t have on Sea World or the captive herp industry or anything. Until you said that, I didn’t even know, because I don’t obsessively read your blog and memorize your takes on every single aspect of animal science. I don’t care enough about you or your content to be mad at you.

I posted what I did out of amiable concern, and now I really wish I hadn’t because it’s clear that you’re not interested in how the public perceives the public posts you made on your public blog. You looked like you’re caught in a major negative feedback loop, I felt vaguely sad for you, and so I said something. Perhaps my first mistake was assuming you wanted to keep the educational mission of your blog somewhat intact. You run your blog the way you want- even if it seems like the way you’re running it is actively hurting you.

My own experiences with mental illness are what made me feel sorry for you in the first place. My prediction is that you’ll take this as an insult at best and an attack at worst, but whatever. I don’t care enough about you to be your bad guy. I am not here to be your villain. I would like to stop thinking about you, and so now I am. I understand that this statement will also make you mad, but that’s your prerogative. Have fun with your... whatever this actually is. Again, you’re responsible for curating your own online experience, and you are clearly miserable. I hope you find something that can make you less upset.

Followers, friends, and strangers who keep putting screenshots of their posts about me in my inbox? Please cut that out. I don’t want anyone to think that I’m trying to evade a block, and I have a sneaking suspicion some of you are trying to stir up more drama by goading me into responding. That’s why I’m not publishing any of the asks or sharing the screenshots.

Owl isn’t an archvillain and I have no quarrel with them. Their behavior is extremely concerning, but it’s clear they don’t want anybody to care. They just want to be mad. Fortunately for me, the impotent rage of an anonymous tumblr blogger isn’t enough to trigger my RSD, and my flavor of mental illness makes it really easy for me to move on. I don’t care about their opinions enough to want any further followup, and they can make of this post what they will.

LOL owlvid blocked me for being condescending. I’m sorry, the thousand+ posts in the last three days WEREN’T a desperate cry for help? At least now their endless drama is off my dash for good.