During one of our evening safaris in the Yala national park, we came to a waterhole where we saw a few Water Buffaloes and Painted Storks. All seemed calm at the waterhole with the Storks lazily fishing and the Buffaloes just cooling off. All of a sudden, we spotted a group of tiny fishes jump out and above the water surface followed by a splash. We were quite puzzled as to why the fishes exhibited such behavior and what would have caused the subsequent splash.
When another group of these tiny fishes jumped out of the water, we spotted the snout of a crocodile on the water surface and the puzzle was solved. This crocodile was out fishing amongst the Water Buffaloes and Painted Storks. What amazed us was the interesting fishing technique used by the crocodile.
The crocodile would first herd the fishes and slowly drive them towards the water surface. Once at the water surface, the fishes were were all together with nowhere to go and all they could do was to jump out of the water. I guess most of the fishes jumped out of the water and those that didn’t, just became easy prey for the smart croc.
