Wednesday 12 Feb – I had some business in the Kranji area, and took the opportunity to drop by Buloh in the late afternoon. The recent dry spell had left water levels in the ponds near the Visitor Centre unacceptably low. The Reserve proper, too, felt a tad parched. At the end of my little walk around Route 1, having seen more than a day’s share of incredibly large golden web spiders (Nephila spp.), I stood on the Main Bridge and scanned the banks and the water for crocs and other friends.
Initially, there was nothing of particular interest. I hung around. Then a shape surfaced – the snout and the eyes of a large Estaurine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) – and disappeared under water almost as soon as it appeared. It was some distance away, out of the decent coverage range of my 200mm tele, so I waited for it to appear once more and willed it to come closer.
The exposed ‘islet’ of sandy clay in the middle of of the river was more prominent that I could remember (my last visit was six months ago); a channel had formed on either side. The croc I was looking out for was in the right channel, near the mangrove banks. In the left channel, or so a photographer to my left had shouted, a croc was swimming down, between the honour guard of egrets. Then ‘my’ croc had emerged again, and I pointed it out.
It appeared that the other croc had picked up the pace and where a few seconds ago I was still straining to see where it was exactly, it had by then taken a sharp left and was scrambling over the tip of the islet to get into the right channel.
Had it seen the ‘my’ larger croc? It certainly did seem like the crocs had seen each other and were responding to the other’s presence: at first, the larger croc made directly for the smaller one, then both went under. When they came up again, the smaller was ahead of the larger, which we realised could be recognised from the stub it had for a tail – it was, as I later learnt, ‘Tailless’, the infamous resident. “Fight, fight!” One of the photographers began to chant.
Contrary to what the photographers were expecting, there was no outbreak of violence, no clash of jaws and claws. Instead, there was a gentle ritualistic dance.
They circled each other three or four times, and before we knew it, they had connected…
… with ‘Tailless’ on top – from what I could discern.
“Oh,” someone exclaimed, “they are making love!”
There was some chin-to-snout rubbing, and not much else. Not twisting or rolling. No vocalisations too, or at least none that I could hear.
They were in contact for less a full minute (5:19pm), according to the timestamps. As the process is known to take several minutes, I’m inclined to think that this might have been a failed attempt; the suspected female had pulled out from under the (also suspected) male prematurely. Or, they could’ve been both of the same sex, since these fellows are, according to this page, known to attempt to mate with individuals of their own sex. (Also interestingly, ‘Tailless’ was observed last month to have been mounted by another.)
After they had separated, they remained some distance apart but did not leave each other’s sights. ‘Tailless’ swam a little further, about mid-way up the channel, and the suspected female made her way downstream before stopping short of the supporting beams of the Main Bridge and turning around to face ‘Tailless’.
There in their positions they remained for the next hour or so, motionless but watchful. I lingered for as long as I could, but had to slip away before the gates closed me in. Till next time!