Baby crocs start chatting even before they hatch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Baby crocodiles start chatting to one another and to their mothers just before they hatch, perhaps signaling that it is time to be born, French researchers reported on Monday.

The little crocs make an "umph! umph! umph!" sound right before they hatch, Amelie Vergne and Nicolas Mathevon of Universite Jean Monnet in Saint-Etienne, France reported.

(To listen to the audio click here)

"Crocodile mothers react strongly to playback of pre-hatching calls, most of them by digging the sand," they wrote in the journal Current Biology.

The researchers tested 10 crocodiles and their eggs, recording the sounds the babies made and then playing these, as well as random sounds, to the mothers.

The sounds seemed to spur siblings to start breaking out of their eggs, Vergne and Mathevon wrote.

"In the zoo where we did the experiments, eggs are removed within a few days after laying. In spite of this, females continue to guard the nest."

Eight of the mother crocodiles who were played recordings of the correct "umph" calls tried to dig up their clutches, while mothers who heard random sounds did not.

Mathevon said many baby reptiles are eaten right after birth, so it may be important for them all to hatch together and for the mother to be there when they do.