NGM207 - The Nile Crocodile
Nature's Greatest Moments • 4m 44s
For a juvenile crocodile in the Pongola River system, surviving through the critical period of infancy is a triumph of instinct. After intricate rituals of courtship and nest excavations the female crocodile lays her eggs in a sandy pit and vigilantly keeps guard of her clutch, forfeiting her own need for food until such time as the young are ready to leave the nursery. They emerge from the eggs simultaneously with squeaks and clicks, alerting their mother and encouraging each other. The mother tenderly mouth-lifts them and releases them in a concealed nursery where they immediately and instinctively begin to practice the technique of prey ambush that will sustain them for the rest of their lives. After about 6-8 weeks, the female’s procreation duties are completed and maternal ties are severed.
Up Next in Nature's Greatest Moments
-
NGM208 - Baby Rhino Birth
The white rhino populations of southern Africa remarkably continue to grow despite the sad history of poaching and slaughter. For a species that almost vanished from the earth, the birth of every infant is significant. This event is witnessed by amateur filmmakers who diligently wait out a cow’s ...
-
NGM209 - Great White Shark Seal hunt
This shark has the reputation of being the best and most powerful hunter. Nature’s most feared predator attacks and kills a Cape fur seal basking on the surface of the ocean – reducing her life to a bloody feeding frenzy of sharks and gulls, leaving her newborn offspring abandoned and bleating it...
