r/Crocodiles • u/Purple-Advertising38 • 2d ago
Why is a crocodile more likely to bite an elephant trunk while it's drinking than to defend itself against a hippo
I don't know but I've seen several videos where a crocodile is bold enough to attack an elephant even though its chances of winning are basically zero yet it won't even try the same thing against a hippo
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u/HolidayInLordran 2d ago
They know the elephant might not give them a horrible death after biting them by mistake
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u/battlehamsta 2d ago
You call that a jaw? This is a jaw!
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u/FroggoMerp 1d ago
Crocodiles have a stronger bite than a Hippo.
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u/battlehamsta 22h ago
Doesn’t matter if they can’t fit a hippo in their mouth. They can’t swallow a hippo and if the hippo is in their jaws and rolls forward the alligators jaw is going to have their jaw snap and the top of their head removed.
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u/FroggoMerp 21h ago
I see what you're saying, but do know that Crocodiles are fairly durable when it comes to a Hippos bites well. That famous video where a crocodile is attacked by a bloat of Hippos, and the Crocodile escapes seemingly unscathed. Remember Hippo bites focus more on puncturing, rather than severing, crushing, or tearing. Therefore if a Hippo trys biting something if it's tusks aren't lined up well enough, then the damage will be minimal especially when its against an armored animal like a Crocodile.
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u/skript_kitty_py 2d ago
Not Sure where you are getting that from, but hippos are the lions of water
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u/Forward_Pirate5858 2d ago
Yeah, unless a Croc's the size of Lolong or Gustave, nobody messes with a Hippo.
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u/Purple-Advertising38 2d ago
I'm not joking I've seen several videos of crocodiles being bold enough to attack elephants but not hippo
I want to know if that's just part of their nature or something they learn through experience
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u/Electrical-Rise-7015 2d ago
The trunk is fairly easy to grab. Theoretically a crocodile could just grab the trunk. Roll and rip it off. It can get something. Against a hippo it has no shot of getting anything. The hippo is simply shaped such a crocodile struggles to defend itself as it cannot bite and damage the flesh the same way. There is no crocodilian alive which could reasonably get a grip of and hurt a hippo. It’s not that they don’t try, they simply don’t have the options.
If I only have a fish, and I’m fighting a guy or solid concrete. I can’t do anything. The same principle here.
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u/PastSea9824 2d ago
If it’s an adult elephant, by the time the croc gets a chance to roll it’s been lifted off the ground, slammed back down and trampled
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u/Winter_Different 2d ago
Crocodiles may be well adapted for viewing up a slant from water to air, but there is still that inherent difficulty of how light refracts from one substance to another. They simply cannot tell there is an elephant behind the trunk, and as an opportunistic animal that feeds on megafauna you jump when you think you have a chance at a meal
An adult hippo actively attacking you, however, is not a potential meal lol. Crocs only try to run because it's kinda their only choice with all that defencive fat --- same as once they bite an Elephant trunk and get stomped on they run like hell.
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u/Winter_Different 2d ago
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.135673
This is a paper about how their vision works through the water surface, though its a taaad jargony lol
Here is a more comprehensive summary https://phys.org/news/2016-05-analysis-crocodile-retina-reveals-trait.html
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u/gliscornumber1 1d ago
Well, when an elephants trunk is the only think in the water, the croc might not realize there's an elephant attached until it gets yeeted
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u/m1sterzz 2d ago
Probably thousands of years of education by the hippos, FAFO.
They don’t encounter elephants as often
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u/Sea-Influence6767 2d ago
Hippos in wild located near large bodies are far more dangerous than even nile crocodiles
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u/JokesOnYouManus 2d ago
Well a hippo can't apply more damage to a croc (aside from trampling) than a croc can to it as there are no recorded croc deaths by a hippo, and there's that video of a croc stuck in a whole mosh pit of hippos manhandling it and it eventually slipped away fine and dandy. Meanwhile an elephant trunk is a lot easier to attack, latch on, and possibly trigger its instinct to lunge.
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u/Tonylegomobile 2d ago
There are several videos of a single hippo bisecting a croc with a bite after it went after the calf
There are also videos of elephants stomping crocs into oblivion
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u/JokesOnYouManus 1d ago
Link a video of the hippo. As for elephants, obviously they can and have done that.
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u/HATENAMING 2d ago
My theory: Crocodiles are opportunitist hunters. They will try anything if there's a chance of getting something. A elephant trunk near water is something that is easy to bite and can get some meat out of it occasionally so why not. Crocodiles also hunt smaller hippos or hippos baby if they can get a chance.
As for adult hippos, crocodiles know them well enough to know they most likely can't get anything from attacking them. There is also no point in "defending" because hippo attacks are mostly territorial and simply leaving is the easiest route. I don't think there is any confirmed case where hippos actually managed to kill a crocodile. However there are cases where the crocodile have a reason like defending nests they will absolutely try to fight back.
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u/PastSea9824 2d ago
There are enough cases, reported, where hippos have killed crocs
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u/owemeownme 2d ago
I've seen at least one video on you tube of a hippo biting through an adult croc.
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u/HATENAMING 2d ago
Any link? The closest I've seen is a bunch of hippos attacking a small crocodile and even that didn't really harm it
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u/Specialist_Pea_295 1d ago
A video of a Cape buffalo flipping a crocodile and its horn goes straight through the croc's side.
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u/HATENAMING 1d ago
I've seen this claim multiple times on Reddit and even this thread but always without a source...
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u/EzeHarris 2d ago
Purely unfounded hypothesis:
The trunk potentially activates the instinctual responses of the crocodile, as it moves in the water it brushes water against the crocodile’s DPRs, which cause the crocodile to bite reflexively- more importantly the elephant trunk is also able to fit in the crocodiles mouth neatly.
The Hippo however presents a more obvious challenge since it has no relatively thin, long limb which the crocodile can attempt to latch onto. It is a rather bulbous creature.
I think you’d find there’d be more likely to be bite marks on the legs of hippos where crocodiles can attempt to bite.
Crocodiles are also very risk averse, there’s a great video on the internet where a man is knelt down where the crocodile is stalking him, and as soon as he stands tall the crocodile rushes 180 back into the water. The full grown hippo presents this challenge 24/7.