An award-winning photograph that will be featured in a wildlife exhibition depicts crocodile parents engaging in an unconventional kind of childcare.
This stunning photo shows a crocodile father letting 100 of his babies hitch a ride on top of him (Image: Dhritiman Mukherjee)
A male freshwater gharial is photographed calmly waiting for over 100 of his month-old children to jump onto his back before securely transporting them away.
Dhritiman Mukherjee, an India-based photographer, captured the breathtaking image after patrolling for weeks in northern India’s National Chambal Sanctuary, which is home to 500 of the endangered crocodiles.
Photo: ST
“Other crocs carry their young about in their mouths,” Patrick Campbell, senior reptile curator at London’s Natural History Museum, told the BBC.
Male gharial crocodiles have a distinctive bump on the end of their snout
“But for the gharial, the unusual morphology of the snout means this is not possible. So the young have to cling to the head and back for that close connection and protection.”
Gharials can measure up to 15 feet (4.5m) long and weigh more than 2,000 lbs. (900kg).
Their name comes from the bulbous knobs on the end of the males’ snouts, known as a “ghara”. During mating season, crocodiles use their ghara to intensify their vocalizations and blow bubbles.
Most crocodiles carry their young in their mouths (Image: Getty Images/EyeEm)
This croc was obviously highly successful in this sense. According to Mukherjee, the proud father would have had to mate with seven or eight different females in order to father more than 100 children.
Because gharials are severely endangered, it is hoped that all of the baby crocs survive to adulthood and can reproduce. There are just about 650 adults left in India and Nepal’s wild freshwaters.
The gharial crocodile has some significant differences to others (Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)