Chinese alligators like a good sing-a-long, but they don't worry about carrying a tune. They also don't much care what the opposite sex thinks of the song choice, according to a story on National Geographic News.
Researchers with the Chinese Academy of Sciences ran some tests to see whether alligator "songs"--it's really more like sustained, extremely loud croaking, which the researchers compare the sound to thunder--attracted mates to the singer. Surprisingly, it didn't work quite that way.
More story and a video of singing alligators after the jump!
The researchers had expected females to draw closer to the speaker that was playing recordings of males. Surprisingly, though, males and females reacted the same way to the calls of either gender. All the alligators stayed put, and about 75 percent of the alligators joined the recorded song. This response suggests that alligators don't sing to compete for prospective mates, the study says.
And yet, the alligators do seem to sing more during mating season. So far, the best guess is that the songs are really a way of saying,"Hey, I'm an alligator, too. And I'm over here!" Which, in the context of mating, is just the time-honored tradition of hoping the opposite sex notices that you exist.
RSS Feed
And underneath the city
The alligators sing
About how the puppets cannot dance
Since someone cut the strings
Hawkwind "Lost Johnny"
I'd like to think that the purpose of the singing is to lure researchers closer so they can eat them.
The actual data does not prove that alligators are not singing to attract mates.
The data tends to indicate that alligator singing doesn't work to attract mates, but hell, you could say that about teen-age garage bands too.
I hate it when I can't get my chainsaw started. (Or was that my motorcycle?)
*smacks forhead* It's a Gator burping contest!
I never knew alligators were into chiptunes...
Arghh! Beat me to it thequickbrownfox. So, what's the basis for those lyrics. I always assumed it was just psychedelic nonsense, but was it known alligators sang before?
... did i just watch alligator sex? somehow, i'm a little disappointed.
it always surprises me how unsophisticated humans think other animals are. no, not surprises - disappoints.