Yellow-billed Stork grooms croc!
Sitting close to the water’s edge at Sunset Dam, near Lower Sabie in Kruger Park, my husband and I were treated to a fascinating display of what I initially thought was a “too close for comfort“ situation. After a few minutes however I decided it was more like an example of mutualism. A small crocodile lay passively in the shallow water, rocked gently by the small waves. A Yellow-billed Stork was feeding nearby among the vegetation. The stork approached the crocodile and gently started pecking the scales on its tail, and then along both of its sides. By this time the crocodile lay with closed eyes and I could only presume this loving treatment was much appreciated!
When the stork started pecking in the “armpit” area, I thought this is too good to be true. The stork even steadied the croc with its right leg to continue the grooming process. Not once did the crocodile try to shake it off or attempt to hurt it in any way. We watched with fascination for about 15 minutes. My abiding thought was to not always expect the worst! Di van Niekerk, Stellenbosch
Peter Ryan comments on the Yellow-billed Stork behaviour as follows:
This is a really interesting observation. Yellow-billed Storks have been observed to follow crocodiles and hippos to snatch fish and other prey disturbed by their passage, but I could find no reference to them gleaning from a crocodile, or from any other large animal. There is little evidence to support claims from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that Egyptian Plovers and Spur-winged Lapwings occasionally glean from the mouths of basking crocodiles, but Cott (1961, Trans. Zool. Soc. London) reported that ‘sandpipers’ glean leeches from crocodiles. Your video footage clearly shows the stork gently nibbling along the tail and sides of the crocodile, but I couldn’t confirm whether it actually swallowed anything. It’s tricky to infer motivation, but the crocodile does seem to be extremely tolerant of the stork’s attention, and the focus on the delicate skin at the base of the legs is consistent with an area where ectoparasites are likely to occur.
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