Large crocodiles in the Alligator Rivers region of north Australia do much of their dining not within their rivers or estuaries, but on feral pigs and other terrestrial animals visiting the waterways, a new study has revealed.
The work, published in PLOS ONE, forms part of a larger study of river and floodplain food-webs led by Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute in collaboration with Parks Australia and other partners of the Northern Australian Environmental Resources Hub.
“Our work aims to identify the important sources of food that sustain populations of fish and other large animals in these river systems, and in particular to understand how dependent they are on the seasonal connection with the floodplain,” Director of the Australian Rivers Institute Professor Stuart Bunn said.
Crocodiles are considered to be the apex aquatic predator in these systems.
Taking ‘scute’ samples helped researchers determine what the crocodiles were eating.
“We know from many years of studying
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