Interesting facts about animals: why the crocodile cries

If someone pretends that he pities the one whom he himself offended, then such an offender is told: "It pours crocodile tears." In other words, in this case it is insincere tears accompanying hypocritical regret. It's time to find out why the crocodile cries, because he's bloodthirsty and far from being kind.

Ancient peoples feared crocodiles

Some people in ancient times found in crocodiles the presence of such a dominant character trait as a tendency to deceive. Several thousand years ago in Egypt, these animals, inhabiting the Nile, attributed the divine evil. To win the disposition of bloodthirsty and treacherous reptiles, the locals catered to them in every possible way: they gave food, uttered ritual-magical speeches to them. But why crocodiles cry, when they eat, they did not understand.

The fantasy of people had no limits. For example, a well-known ancient Greek explorer can find the following funny description of the crocodile's behavior. Insidious reptile with a mouth full of river water rushed to the steep path to water it profusely, and then hid in ambush and waiting for the victim. It's easy to guess what happened to unsuspecting people or animals that descended the slippery slope of the river to quench their thirst. For all the fantastic nature of such facts, confirming the insidiousness, they are still not so groundless. Why does the crocodile cry during a meal? It is possible that he feels sorry for his food.

Old legend

Various sources recount the ancient legend of the tearful cry of a crocodile over a ruthlessly sacrificed victim, which he immediately trapeznichaet.

From the 9th century the "Library" reached, over which Patriarch Photius worked, who lived in Constantinople. In this pseudoscientific work, there was a place for the legend of a weeping crocodile over the heads of those unfortunates whose remains he had devoured. The author proposed a rather interesting hypothesis, according to which it is not pity that squeezes tears from the crocodile, but the absence of meat in the skull of the victim. That's why crocodiles cry when they eat.

What do the researchers say?

In the 12th century, Hugo Victorian's scientific work appeared in Western Europe, in which there was also talk of crocodile tears. This topic also slips into later periods.

In 1357, the inhabitants of the city of Liege (the territory of modern Belgium) had the opportunity to see the work of "Travel Mandeville." An unknown author in one of the stories tells how Ethiopian crocodiles cry during eating people.

Did not pass attention to the theme of crocodile tears Russian dictionary-directory of the 17th century "Azbukovnik". In the section on the crocodile, the character of the beast living in water is almost the same as that of the Photius Library. That is, the crocodile cries after, having disposed of the human body, can not decide what to do with the head.

Crocodile tears from the Christian point of view

In the Latin and Greek versions of Physiologists, the image of the crocodile was associated with the concept of hell and the image of the devil. All that was put in opposition to him was related to Jesus Christ. Unlike Christ's tears, crocodile tears in the understanding of Christians - apostasy from the righteous faith. Nevertheless, people did not get tired of thinking about the version, why the crocodile cries.

Imperceptibly, beginning approximately from the fifties of the 17th century, the expression "crocodile tears" passes from the plane of its correlation with Christian virtue. The allegory is increasingly becoming the subject of sentimentalism, which has appeared in the literature of a new direction. So, the Russian fabulist Mazdorff AK in the work "Tears of the crocodile" sentimental tearfulness is ridiculed and presented in an ironic form. But the satirist Erasmus of Rotterdam ("Praise of Stupidity") offered his joking interpretation - a hungry crocodile who saw the victim reflexively salivates, which is perceived as tears. One can not say for sure if a crocodile cries.

Scientific explanation of the nature of crocodile tears

An attempt to scientifically explain the origin of crocodile tears was undertaken by Schmidt-Nilsson and Fange - modern researchers from Sweden. Salts that accumulate in the body in excess can not be removed from it by the kidneys. To cope with this task help the special glands that are in the eye area. Periodically, as necessary, they open, and the salts leave the body. Nature, except for crocodiles, endowed such "abilities" and some more representatives of this class of animals, namely turtles, iguanas and sea snakes. Now you know why the crocodile cries.

Zoologists from Florida confirmed the proposed theory of Swedish colleagues by experimenting with caimans and alligators. And the fact of highlighting "tears" during meals is captured by a video camera. This is the proof of the scientific theory.