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Case Study

A Decade of Tracking Crocodiles in Australia Reveals a Dynamic Social System

Long thought to be solitary and anti-social, estuarine crocodiles are considered extremely aggressive. They often exhibit violent behavior toward other animals and members of their own species that can lead to severe injury or death.

Dr. Cameron Baker of Charles Darwin University in Australia was a PhD student at The University of Queensland when he analyzed a 10-year acoustic telemetry dataset to gain new insights into the social structure of crocodiles, discovering that individual crocodiles segregate into distinct communities for specific periods of time.

Challenge

To fully understand the interactions and social dynamics of any large group of animals, researchers need to track movement and behavior over a long period of time – and often across considerable distances – to discern regular and specific patterns rather than just anomalies.

Prior to significant advancements in passive acoustic telemetry technology, undertaking such vast and far-reaching studies for aquatic and semi-aquatic species was extremely difficult. Often scientists had to rely on casual observation, which can yield unreliable data that leads to incorrect assumptions and results.

Solution

Innovasea has made significant strides extending the life and range of its receivers and developing long-life transmitters that enable long-term, broad-scale research. These technology advancements enabled researchers from the University of Queensland and Australia Zoo to track 166 wild estuarine crocodiles of various sizes and ages concurrently over a 10-year period as they moved through 120 kilometers of river and estuarine habitat.

An array of VR2W receivers was deployed in the Wenlock River in Northern Queensland and the crocodiles were implanted with long-life V13 and V16 transmitters to investigate how time of year, individual sex and maturity status affect social organization.

Result

Analyzing the 10-year dataset of nearly 5.5-million detections, researchers discovered that the tagged crocodiles segregated into distinct communities along the Wenlock River and estuary.

They also found that the time of year significantly influenced the detectability of tagged individuals. Detection frequency and number of crocodiles detected per receiver were at their lowest during March and April at the end of the wet season, and at their peak during September just prior to the mating season.

These findings indicate that estuarine crocodiles have a structured social system, where proximity to the mating period and individual maturity status dictate how the animals associate with other members of their species.

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It was incredibly exciting to gain new insights into a species that was previously thought to be exclusively solitary and anti-social. The ability to conduct such a large-scale study over a long period of time and across such a vast distance was only made possible by the advancements in acoustic telemetry technology Innovasea has made over the years.

Dr. Cameron Baker, Charles Darwin University
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