attention this is your captain speaking chag sameach pesach to all celebrating and a reminder do not open the airlock to greet elijah the vulcan rabbinic council ruled that opening the door to the room where the seder is occurring is sufficient elijah can get on a starship just fine himself he just likes to be personally invited in to your seder we dont need another incident like last year thank you
These two are American crocodiles! They are a vulnerable species and it’s been decades since Sanibel Island has had breeding American crocodiles, and because of how safe the island is for animals- more than 75% is a nature reserve- it would be an excellent spot for them to breed! This would be a wonderful place to raise baby crocodiles!
Apparently, homosexual behavior is pretty common in American crocodiles? At least according to the St. Augustine Crocodile Farm study, which was conducted 40 years ago and might have methodological flaws. I haven’t checked.
That study was on American alligators! I have a whole big write up of it here if you want to see that talks about some of the methodologies and implications of the results!
They’ve been spotted again!
Same pond, same position, slightly different location on the shoreline. Apparently the bigger one is a fine pillow.
GODDAMMIT THEY’RE LESBIANS
This is in addition to the OTHER female/female crocodile pair on Sanibel, who are engaging in courtship in this picture. This is one of the girls about half a second from mounting the other and engaging in cloacal rubbing. I love being friends with the wildlife biologists down there, they are so kind to tell me about the large lizard-esque lesbian lovefest that this year’s AmCroc breeding season has become.
So uh
One of the lesbians just moved into some lady’s back yard and built a nest.
Now, these could be duds. But they might not be!! The new lady could have shown up gravid or retained sperm. Or we could be looking at something highly unusual and there’s gonna be a litter of crocodile Jesuses.
Either way, this is EXTREMELY exciting. Let’s go, lesbians!!!
i dont think its the first case of croc parthenogenesis, and certainly not the first reptile (i believe there might’ve been an avian case?)
but crocs also have a real weird evolutionary history, and if there are aren’t any avian cases, then we might not have much chance here.
still good to hope tho
There is a single known case in American crocodiles, which is what these are! This would be the first known US/wild case if it is! The other alternatives are more likely, but you bet I’m gonna be keeping an eye on this.
