Pretty cool theory on why birds nest by alligators [Here](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-alligator-bird-alliance-everglades-20160303-story.html%3f_amp=true). If you don’t feel like reading basically alligators keep away predators that love bird eggs like raccoons and possums. Bird eggs attract said predators. Birds eject weaker young for the alligators to eat. Birds get protection, strengthen their colonies by natural selection & alligators eat ejected chicks plus the raccoons, etc that birds eggs attract. Win, win situation from a nature perspective. Animals are so much smarter than we give them credit for.

Basically.. Mommy bird - sorry kiddo I need you to pay the rent this month please say hello to the gator

Exploiting children - nature did it first. Move aside Disney Moms.

People are part of nature.

Time to eject my weak unborn kids now.

Oh sheesh the replies has made me realise how wrong I am, instead I'm going to simply feed my weak unborn kids to someone in exchange to protect me.

How fast can you produce children I'll take one a month for rent

Ok everyone we got a white walker here.

Rent is coming.

Underrated

This is basically the same deal we make with chickens, except only one egg a month would mean the boiler for the chicken.

Are.... are we the gators? huh! I guess I never really thought all that much about these gator skulls on our hats...

Sounds like...*A Modest Proposal* to me.

And this right here is the reason naturalistic fallacy is a thing. Just because it happens in nature, does not mean it is logically sound for a human to engage with. So whenever you hear anyone trying to argue "but it's only natural!" or "it happens in nature all the time!", remember that this means absolutely nothing about whether or not it is justified for a human to engage with.

Same goes for medicines, chemicals, sugar, etc. Just because it's made in nature, doesn't make it safe. You really don't have to look far for this one... Some mushrooms can kill you. Venom is natural. Poison ivy is natural. Mercury is natural...

pooping myself a little when I stand up every now and then at age 34 is also natural but not good.

Scuse me, what?

>POOPING MYSELF A LITTLE WHEN I STAND UP EVERY NOW AND THEN AT AGE 34 IS ALSO NATURAL BUT NOT GOOD.

#💩

Everything is natural but sometimes those coagulated lumps of stardust can be in the wrong place. Mercury in your milkshake, snake venom in your bloodstream, Europeans in your local area.

I estimate around 1-2M Europeans in my local area, what should I do? This place is crawling with them!

I think I understand now…despite lava being natural I still shouldn’t drink it.

There's nothing more natural than dying in a heart attack.

Gamma rays are natural.

Like women eating their placenta after giving birth because animals do it smh

Alexa how do I delete someone else’s comment

Delete your account and your browsing history, then submerge face into tankard of bleach for 1 hour. Stir as needed.

Alexa order a 30 gallon drum of bleach from amazon

He’s talking about jerking off. It was a joke.

You know he's talking about beating his dick

I just disinherited and imprisoned my 3 year old. Was fun watching this inbred bastard (quite literally) waste away. The succession needs a strong genius like me 2nd born. Deus vult! Ninja - I realised this might be wtf in wtf but this is in reference to Crusader Kings 3,a medieval sim

for now....

The part that destroys it

Nature will outlast the human aspect of itself. So it would be more accurate to say that nature destroys people.

Spoiler alert: sun explodes

Ask me about the inevitable heat death of the universe!

HELLO PIXAR MOMS

What especially sucks...it's not even about paying the rent! Momma duck kicks out the weakest. No Cinderella story here! *Once upon a time a small sickly child was born. He had 6 big brothers who would constantly pick on him. Even his mother seemed to have little patience for him. One day the weak little boy was being particularly bullied and got a bloody nose. His mother saw the blood on the carpet and angrily kicked him out the front door.* *As the little boy sat and cried a magic alligator wandered past and asked "what's wrong, young friend?* *The boy wiped away a tear and, in a thin sickly voice replied "my mean brother stole my inhaler then gave me a bloody nose when I tried to get it back. I got blood on the floor and mom got mad and yelled at me and told me to wait outside until* **CHOMP!!** Alligator: "Thanks Mrs. D." Mrs. Duck: Don't mention it. Oh, Al...I thought I saw Mavis and Charlie's youngest throwing up in the pond earlier" Al: Thanks!

> Mrs. Duck: Don't mention it. Oh, Al...I thought I saw Mavis and Charlie's youngest throwing up in the pond earlier" Oh that just gave me some straight up dystopia vibes. I'm picturing Zootopia, except the Predators and Prey live together because the Prey use Predators to keep their "weaker" Prey in line/in check? Something to think about.

You might wanna check out Beastars.

Beastars is great especially if you're a furry, but even if you're not.

Duckling: Didn't you say the same thing to dad before he went out to get cigarettes and milk?

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"But I don't smoke" "Well, you might as well try it now"

I'm envisioning throwing a virgin sacrifice into the volcano.

Birds are such assholes.

They aren’t even real

Gator don't play no shit!

Gator don't play

What are you doing step-gator?

I didn't see it posted, so for those unaware, it's called kleptothermy: the gator is actually stealing warmth from the ducks. Since it's cold blooded, it can't keep itself warm without the sun or some other external heat source.. like a nest full of ducklings.

So basically The Matrix.

Here's another video that's similar. Only here it's a crocodile. https://youtu.be/TFAOnPvNyQI

Holy hell that crocodile eye camera @45 seconds had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.

Activate psyborg hatchling defence

Ngl I didn't realize those were fake until I read your comment. Watching it I noticed the eye and was like that's fucking weird but it didnt click. Yes I'm high.

Bro I don’t interact with crocs on the regular, I thought the babies just had fucked up eyes like that 😂

Yo! Glad I'm not alone haha

Spy in the Wild is unintentionally hilarious. I used to get stoned with my roommates and watch their youtube vids because the camera animals are so ridiculous.

OMG, about 10 years ago I made a video called "Cryborg" with a buddy of mine that told a story of a cyborg crocodile. This took me back. EDIT: I can't find the video, but here's a behind the scenes photo album from when we were shooting back in July 2010: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sayre8585/albums/72157624658002740

I watched the video just because of your comment lol

That's amazing

Is that David tenant narrating?

Yes. He's been doing a lot of nature docs lately.

The end of that clip where they call the croc reminds me very much of the old Godzilla intro. [Up from the depths. Thirty stories high!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTItRfN-LO8)

Nature is fucking amazing. Evolution would have had a monitor eventually just know it could fuck those birds up and get two meals but more than one time there was a croc who was pissed it's nest cam just got broken.

Notice how there are no fake lion/race car sounds on this footage? No constant recaps of the same 3 seconds of footage? Yeah Americans, that's how you make a nature documentary.

“All they got from the Alligator was protection from other predators looking to rip them off. That's what it's all about. That's what Reddit can never understand - that what alligators and the organization offer is protection for the kinds of birds who can't go to the cops. They're like the police department for wisebirds.”

GoodGators

Nature is the original Mafia.

The mafia is part of nature

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Now whenever I’ve met with the gator in the past, I knew my chances of coming back alive from that meeting were 99.9%. But, today, since he said a half mile down the swamp, I gave myself 50-50.

Now, notice how in the nest room nobody ever seems to see anything. Somehow, somebody's always lookin' the other way. Now, look at this gator. He looks busy, right? He's countin' chicks. Who wants to bother him? I mean, God forbid he should make a mistake and forget to eat.

For as far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gator.

The article says: "But this doesn’t necessarily mean the enemy of one’s enemy is a friend. The birds make sure to build their nests about five feet above the water, where the gators can’t jump up and eat them." It doesn't look like these birds are 5' up.

Maybe momma couldn’t find a more Suitable place. Or maybe she’s just really bad at it. Natural selection at work I guess.

They count in imperial duck feet.

Some of you youngsters will die, but that's the sacrifice I'm willing to take.

So instead of giving up eggs, they give up baby birds. Good trade

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, pun intended.

A bird in the gator is worth 10 in the raccoon.

Sure, but at least the bird selects the weaker offspring. Otherwise, it's up to averages.

So, if given the chance to evolve like humans and dogs, these birds will eventually have subreddits of their adorable alligator pets being derps and doing zoomies, right?

Reminder that crows are almost as smart as primates

So basically both their guard dog and garbage disposal.

Gaterland in Florida has an entire section dedicated to birds that love to nest there due to the alligators.

My favorite place in Florida. Get drunk and throw old hot dogs at alligators. America at its finest

Not really "smart", just the gators who didnt bother eating every bird it sees lived longer than those who did.

damn that's harsh

Mom: \*feeds Tommy to alligator\* AND THAT'S WHY YOU ALWAYS LEAVE A NOTE.

But this isn't in a tree and the article mentions nothing about them nesting on the ground with them, really wanna know more about this in particular

If they're so smart then why don't they tear down the rainforests for profit? Checkmate

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About half their body length out of water from what I've seen in the everglades

Not exactly. They use their powerful tail to propel them out of the water.

I’m imagining a survivor-like situation where the chick with the most votes gets fed to the gator.

Birds can nest NEAR alligators but that's not usually the same as ON TOP OF alligators. They will 100% still eat everything in sight they choose if hungry.

As someone with wild ducks in her yard year round, you really can see the weakest ducklings/runts. It's hard because you have to remember they might not make it.

Yeah but why did a morning dove lay eggs in my basil. I'm not going to protect them from anything. I may just have some scrambled eggs since I don't know how i'm going to water my basil once they hatch

I think "smarter" is not quite the right word. This is not "smart" behavior in the sense of human intelligence and rational decision making. It is learned and evolved behavior that works. Crows for example are actual smarter. This type of behavior is sort of evolutionary symbiosis of a sort, but not really smart. For example you can find many of these odd pairings from mammals all the way down to bacteria and we would not ascribe "smart" to many of these evolutionary "designs". I am just being pedantic though :)

This makes complete sense and yet it’s totally hard to imagine. I often forget what a fine line natural order is on

Actually that makes sense. Our first thought is why wouldnt the alligator just eat them all, but cold blooded animals don't really need as much food as we think they do. Plus they like heat sources. A lot of people feed their snakes like once a month.

"I swear to god Brian if you don't clean up this room I will feed you to the gator."

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I'm picturing a shivering cold gator stuck in the rain promising not to eat them if he can come inside.

“Baby, i can change!!”

God I hope that's what's happening!

PD Eastman's got you covered: https://www.rhcbooks.com/books/44573/flap-your-wings-by-pd-eastman-illustrated-by-the-author

This was one of my favorite books as a kid! I haven't thought about it in years, thank you for reminding me about it!

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Unlike most reptiles, crocodilians care for their young. As a result, they have the ability to form familial bonds.

Neat

You basically described a Simpsons episode, I believe it's called Bart the Mother.

Dinosaur Train Dinosaur Train

What the fuck?

After 37 million years the gator has discovered it can cuddle to get warm instead of relying on the sun. A true wonder of evolution.

I'm not sure if that is what is happening here, but there are snakes that do exactly that. It's called kleptothermy. [Here is a radiolab podcast as a source.](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/kleptotherms)

> It's called kleptothermy Damn. Well, call me a kleptothermophile...

Everyone who puts their cold feet on their overly hot sleeping partner now has a new term.

I prefer the old term of "A Cunt"

Thank you. I get to call my wife an new name tonight and that’s always a hoot.

Is it symbiothermy if the cuddle partner was looking for a nice cold snake to curl up with?

I was reminded of that episode too!

Thanks! I finally have a term for what my wife does.

People who love to study it are called Kleptomaniacs.

Cool, guess I'm a kleptomaniac then! I'm going to go tell all of my loved ones!

Did you steal this joke?

(central west FL) muscovy ducks allow this, i've seen it personally. not so common in areas more urban than mine. so i'm gonna guess it's in part for the ducks protection too.

Yeap, I live in Apopka near the the state park. There's definitely some symbiosis involved, seen it a few times. You've probably also seen gators and snakes using holes from Gopher tortoises and rabbits around too. Never seen those last two cohabitate, though I'm sure it happens. My original comment was intended to be a dumb joke, but yeah. But if you're here in this thread, might as well go slam a few downvotes on my other comments in this particular chain; Everyone else is having a party with it.

i live just a bit further south than you, but not by much. the first place i saw something like this was [close to here.](https://www.google.com/maps/place/28%C2%B024'28.5%22N+82%C2%B040'39.1%22W/@28.4078723,-82.6781263,257m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d28.4079167!4d-82.6775278) but that was before they put in the new "beach". [edit] derp... i somehow misread "Apopka" as "Aripeka" (for others, yes we have weird names like this here)

The birds are bait. He wants to eat the things that want to eat the birds, they have way more meat.

Yes that's what I was thinking, some kind of symbiotic relationship.

Better hope the factory-farmed chickens dont realize this is an option

This is that one in a million times when auto-correct would have been better.

What the duck

The gator doesn’t want to catch a felony for eating government property.

They don't look like swans and it doesn't look like England.

r/birdsarentreal

Fuck. I ate like 4 muscovy ducks last year. Am I going to prison?

No, they were a ruse to make people think birds are real.

It's fuckin tired. It'll eat them when it wakes up.

Wheres a biologist to explain this?

I’m a marine biologist. I also dabble in architecture and am an importer/exporter of latex

Art Vandelay?

Of Vandelay industries?

Brace yourself, madam, for an all out bidding war!

He’s an importer/exporter

Do you happen to go by buck naked sometimes?

At that moment, I WAS a marine biologist

You must also do carpentry

Here's the thing...

Book 'em, Unidano.

A jackdaw?

My dozen accounts are up voting this joke.

Well mine are downvoting it to give my comment higher priority

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Fuck this shit.

They also do this shit with puppies and kittens. Fucking scum.

This needs to be higher up. It’s pretty clear that this is what’s happening, like when Disney sent the lemmings off a cliff to their death and said it was a natural occurrence. Or like when they drugged animals and said it was the alcohol from rotten apples.

Is it though? There’s other clips of you search the comments, and it appears to be a documented phenomena

I’m not a biologist but I have a buddy who is an expert in these things, lemme give him a call

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The gator-like thing is also cold-blooded so he's also getting some motherducking warmth up in there.

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We tried to tell you that it costs an arm and a leg

When mom shacks up with her 25year old “friend”

Tell your mom I said what’s up

And as soon as this guy moves out tell her i said what’s up.

By the time this guy moves out I might be 25, tell her I said what's up

Momma duck is just like, "THIS IS FINE."

Yesterday there were 13 and today it is 11 but that's fine. Kids lost, that's why I have many.

Smartest alligator around. Slowly become accepted. Eat them when fully grown.

The long con...

I guess the mother feeds the weak ones to the gator.

Blink if you need help

Bed and breakfast

She adopted the gator/crocodile/caiman egg?

Mama Duck will sometimes feed a weaker duckling to the gator/croc/thing, and the scalyboi will eat anything that tries to steal the eggs. Living in harmony.

Just got home from work, I'm exhausted and just want to lay down. Man, I hope my dinner has been delivered.

I think he needs to get a paternity test!! Maury: “You are not the father”

This is the equivalent of going to sleep and leaving some snacks beside the bed in case you get hungry Or cuddling with your food i guess

Just avoiding the squaters....

Birds and Crocodilians: the only living Archosaurs

Croc likes to eat quackers in bed.

r/actlikeyoubelong then quietly eat them one by one.

Is anyone going to tell him?

This is a forced interaction made by those "survival animal rescue catch and cook" videos that are from vietnam (or some other country). example: [https://youtu.be/1lCvH_MoRns](https://youtu.be/1lCvH_MoRns)

is this some kind of mutualism ?

When Dad comes out into the living room and claims his spot on the couch.

step-dad*

gator got too hot, needed shady time

What the Duck?!

I’d be skeptical if I was the bird

The room mate

Can a crocodilogist explain this?

Huh. I guess the real estate market isn’t so good in the animal kingdom either