The researchers found that the body condition of alligators found near wading bird nesting colonies was higher than those in
similar habitat without active colonies, independent of a range of environmental variables.
In this respect, the spectrum of species in Lake Victoria is now
similar to that found in Lake Tanganyika or in marine
habitats, where fish with pharyngeal jaws have existed alongside competitors
without such jaws for up to 60 million years and have therefore never become specialized for predation on large fish.