Calculated risks are the central focus of animals living in the wild, that must carefully weigh up the potential consequences of their actions. Those gambles that succeed will typically offer the animals the opportunity to mate, or feed.
Rosa Swart caught these storks gambling with their lives in exchange for a good meal in Shingwedzi, in the north of the Kruger National Park. She sent the footage of the event to Latest Sightings.
Crocodiles, like most other predators, are capable of sudden bursts of incredible speed, potentially enough to catch a distracted bird in their jaws, but the storks were running the gauntlet anyway.
Marching In Formation
The crocodiles had gathered into quite the group, lurking just beneath the surface of the water before the storks arrived in their own, equally large numbers.
The large birds were marching along in the shallows as they approached the crocodile float without hesitating or seemingly giving the dangerous reptiles much thought. They kept their heads down looking at the water for potential food instead.
For their part, the crocodiles seemed pretty content to let the birds scavenge what they could from the float, and didn’t show much reaction at all to the birds carefully weaving their way between the idle crocs.
Worth The Risk
Despite their overt nonchalance, the storks were clearly very aware of the fact that a hungry crocodile could decide to make a meal out of one of them at any moment. There was no guarantee they would be able to fly away in time if they were targeted.
Regardless of this risk, the storks were going in. The potential to score a tasty meal must have been high enough for them to justify the risk of becoming one themselves.
Storks typically feed on fish and smaller animals when they can get them, and if this float of crocodiles had recently had a feeding frenzy then there would have been lots of leftovers floating in the water for them to scoop up in their beaks.
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Follow The Leader
After running the risk of milling about the area for a few moments and scooping up what they could with their long beaks, the storks made the decision to move on.
Just as they had approached in formation, they organized themselves into single file and left the area in an orderly fashion. It’s possible that one of the birds had seen a clear route through the dangerous reptiles, and the others followed its lead.
From the speed and determination the other birds shows in following it though, it seems more likely that there was a more food-rich environment just off to the left, behind the bushes, where the storks fancied their chances for a better quality of meal.
Either way, they’d braved the gauntlet of crocodiles, and aside from a few nervous hops, they’d all come out the other side completely unscathed. Any risks that animals take in the wild must be calculated, and these storks knew exactly what they were doing.
