@Shane. The photos shown of toads that may have been possibly used by Pygmy crocs, show they have mangled back legs that are not totally torn off. Freshwater crocs seldom ever eat anything larger than they can swallow in one gulp. What they do to kill their insect, fish and crustacean prey is chomp it a few times by ‘throwing it in the air and re-seizing, at the same positioning it into the middle of mouth so it falls down their gullet when they open their mouth up vertically. I suspect what Dr. Britton was getting at was that they are doing this but only chomping down on the back legs and not repositioning the toads. Repeated chomping would release juices and likely silvers of flesh.
Funding for purely scientific research (without a direct practical application) has pretty much dried up in recent years. However, if you can make a link with the Cane Toad ‘menace’ and show our animals are surviving the onslaught, then the politicians and bureaucrats and the general public are all happy to be associated with positive outcomes for such a high public profile issue. It is certainly won’t hurt Dr. Britton’s funding requests to suggest there might be a connection. Am I being too cynical here?
To answer CrazyNut’s original question, the genetics show that Pygmys are clearly the same species as the rest of the Freshies. Only Mr. Poser disagrees – and he even wants to name a new genus! A captive pair of Pygmys were bred at Melbourne Zoo and the offspring fed a normal diet. They still ended up dwarfed, indicating it is genetic. Unfortunately the info on clutch size and egg sizes is not readily available, but as a rule, smaller individuals have fewer eggs of comparable size. There are indications of a minor genetic difference but wider sampling is required to confirm if this is consistent. What is known at this point is not deemed sufficient by the croc people to warrant sub-specific status investigation.
Contrary to earlier statement made, croc species are renowned for NOT being able to be tamed. This is why something like Rob Bredl sitting on his 3.4 m croc Brian is such a drawcard. As far as croc intelligence goes, they are very capable of learning, as are pretty much all vertebrates, but as to their ‘level’ of intelligence I have no idea. It is apparent that are able to recognise their specific ‘handler’. When talking brain size, body mass is an important influence, as is also the degree of encephalisation. All three factors must be taken into account in any attempt to quantify intelligence.
