Adaptation at its best.

September 12th : Soham asked us to transfer a few Morlet Crocodile juveniles (Crocodylus morleti) from the turtles haven (An exhibit) and from the nursery. We had to transfer both the lot into a new enclosure. After the shifting, soham pointed out some interesting characteristic behavior to us. The Color of the juvenile crocodiles shifted from the nursery were more brighter than the ones from the Turtle haven exhibit. They were much bigger than the ones from the turtle haven exhibit. Both these lot were from the same clutch, which was layed by the Mother morlet's on June 2007.

Morlet crocodile Juveniles from the TURTLE HAVEN EXHIBIT enclosure (See, they are more darker).

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Morlet Crocodile juveniles from the NURSERY ENCLOSURE (See, they're larger and brighter in coloration).

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Soham explained this variation in their morphology/color. He said, the lot from the nursery had more availability of sunlight during the day hours than that at the turtle's haven. The Nursery exposed direct sunlight for nearly 5 hours everyday, making the juveniles from the nursery more brighter and larger (More sunlight, More metabolism, More intake of food, Grows faster). Where as, the ones from the Turtle haven exhibit exposed only less than 2 hours of direct sunlight during the day hours. This made them darker (which helps them to absorb the available sunlight/heat for metabolism) and smaller (Low sunlight, low metabolism, low intake of food, lesser growth). The juveniles from the turtle haven are smaller due to the smaller amount of space they have in their enclosure. Where as the juveniles from the nursery had a much more bigger enclosure resulting in bigger size.

Both the group (5 each from turtle haven and nursery) was from the same clutch which was layed on June 2007 and showed these drastic adaptation behavior based on the area they were housed.

Nature always finds a way.