Impala Spared by Crocodile Not Pregnant, but Rather Male - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 14, 2023
A video of a crocodile catching what appears to be a deer-like animal and subsequently releasing it has been circulating on social media claiming that the crocodile set the animal free because it discovered that it was pregnant. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of a crocodile letting a deer go after realizing it is pregnant.
Fact: The video, filmed in 2017, shows a crocodile’s unsuccessful attempt to catch a male impala (not a deer) at Namibia’s Etosha National Park, dispelling any possibility of the impala being pregnant. As per the videographer, the crocodile probably released the impala because it was outside its natural habitat and unable to execute its deadly death roll on land. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
After conducting an internet search using relevant keywords, we came across a Daily Mail article published in November 2017 titled “Lucky impala cheats death as a crocodile inexplicably releases it from its huge jaws after snatching it by a river“. The article featured a clear video that revealed the impala’s gender, as it had visible antlers indicating it was a male, thereby ruling out the possibility of it being pregnant.
The difference between male and female impalas can be seen in this National Geographic article.
According to Daily Mail, the incident in the video occurred in 2017 near a river in Namibia’s Etosha National Park. A group of wild dogs chased an impala, which then narrowly escaped them near the water’s edge. However, while trying to get away, the impala’s hind leg got caught in a crocodile’s deadly jaws. Despite being on land, the crocodile held onto the impala for a while before inexplicably releasing it and calmly swimming away. According to the person who captured the footage, the crocodile likely let the impala go because it was out of its element and unable to perform its infamous death roll on land.
To sum it up, the notion that the crocodile released the impala in the vial video because it was pregnant is a misconception, as the impala was actually a male.