The world's smallest crocodiles use a sneak attack to hunt bats in hellish underground caves filled with poop, a new video reveals.
The footage of the never-before-seen behavior was captured for the upcoming National Geographic series "Africa: Earth's Wild Home" and offers a rare glimpse into the lives of Gabon's mysterious cave-dwelling dwarf crocodiles.
Dwarf crocodiles (Osteolaemus tetraspis), which grow to only around 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, live across West and Central Africa and are typically found in forests, rivers, swamps and similar surface habitats. However, the cave population filmed in the new series is unique.
Discovered in 2008, these subterranean explorers spend their days in total darkness, stalking mounds of bat excrement (guano) in the remote Abanda Caves of Gabon on the west coast of Central Africa. Researchers knew the crocs were feeding on bats and insects, but they weren't sure how because the crocs wouldn't hunt with humans in their lair.
Now, thanks to a team of brave scientists and filmmakers — and special, remote camera equipment — we can watch the crocs catch their prey for the first time.
"I've been working with this population for almost 15 or 16 years now, and that's something we've never been able to see," Matt Shirley, a conservation ecologist and Rolex National Geographic Perpetual Planet Explorer, told Live Science. "No matter how deeply in the bat guano I've been, or how long I've spent in the caves, whenever I'm in there, the crocodiles just aren't doing what they want to be doing."
